Hollow words from government on greyhound racing.
After many months of investigation by retired High Court Judge Honorable Rodney Hansen, it was revealed that greyhound
racing's animal welfare record was as bad as it's critics claimed.
Minister for Racing Hon Winston Peters proclaimed the inquiry's findings of the industry "unacceptable" but animal
welfare advocates are demanding action, saying a single word proclamation just doesn't cut it.
"To say something is unacceptable and then do nothing about it is a great shame for greyhounds being injured, killed,
live baited and doped for the sake of entertainment" said Aaron Cross, Greyhound Protection League Co-Founder.
"The claims we made in 2013 have now been verified. Greyhound racing is cruel, inhumane and the industry has shown us
all it has no intention of undertaking meaningful reforms."
The year after we raised concerns with the government about excessive overbreeding, the industry responded with higher
than ever breeding numbers, making an impossible situation even worse for greyhound rehoming groups.
At least six greyhounds have been euthanased at race events due to their injuries since Mr Peters December 19th
statement, according to Stewards reports.
"The only thing left is for New Zealand to ban this industry permanently, but all we are seeing is inaction from the new
government."
"Winston Peters said he wanted to "help these people" while condemning their actions - So who's going to help the
victims of this unethical practice?"
Dunedin based GPL spokesperson Emily Robertson said that while the report was encouraging, the government should have
acknowledged the flaws in inherent with industry self-regulation.
"If Mr Peters wants to help these people he can do that by assigning an independent regulator. The case where Racing
Integrity Unit (RIU) board member David Scott advised his greyhound trainer that the RIU was unable to test for certain
drugs, and to therefore go ahead and administer them, shows us that self-regulation opens doors to corruption."
"It also shows that testing for drugs in greyhound racing has never been sufficiently adequate, and that animals are
paying the price for participants greed."
"The industry simply cannot be allowed to self regulate" She said, noting that the the RIU were also responsible for
hiding racing related deaths from the public in their daily reports.
A petition is before the Primary Production Select Committee, and the GPL is hopeful it will create an opportunity to
prohibit greyhound racing.