I work in a vet practice, in Australia, that sees a fair number of greyhounds, both racing and retired. While I do not support the racing industry, I do really love the dogs.
While there has been a lot of noise over the last few years about banning greyhound racing, and it has happened in one state, I have not been in favor of banning the sport, but I wanted to see the money dry up for the industry and gambling associated with it.
There are two types of greyhound breeders, trainers and racers:
The ‘pet with a job’ type, who own one to three dogs their entire life, race them for fun on a Friday/weekend, and the humans have a job outside of racing.
The industry type, which own dozens or hundreds of dogs, are playing a numbers game, race at every meet, usually multiple dogs per night, sometimes multiple dogs per race and churn through these animals.
Now it should be fairly obvious that I have different views on these two groups. One is racing for fun and pocket money, and often doesn’t push the dogs beyond reason (mistakes can be made of course, but they usually regret it). The other is racing as a business, and the dogs are assets.
Here greyhounds are not racing before they’re 2, and they will often continue racing until they’re 4, occasionally up to 5 or 6. For reference, 7 would be considered ‘senior’ for such a large breed. So, baring major injury, they’re capable of a reasonable racing career compared to a racehorse. The older racers are, in my experience, usually owned by the ‘pet with a job’ type.
( And when I talk about ‘major injury’, a career-ending injury doesn’t always result in euthanasia for the dog. Some injuries mean the dog wont race competitively, but it can still trot around the park. )
A ban to take place in one year at least allows for people to stop breeding more greyhounds, but litters on the ground now will find themselves without a ‘job’ by the time they would be ready to race. A year to close the industry is not a very long time, and what will probably happen is that many of these dogs will be sold to adjacent states for racing. That’s what we saw when the ACT banned greyhound racing.
Another issue is that there are people who gain 100% of their income from greyhound racing and don’t have the skills to switch industries. These people are severely affected by such bans coming in over such a short period of time. That’s not the people that own hundreds of dogs, it’s the people working for those people who are affected.
My preference would be to see the sponsors for the gambling dry up. If there’s a $100,000 prize for the winner of a race, the owners of those dogs will probably push them more, or engage in more questionable practices than if it’s just a $250 prize. If you’re competing for $250 you can still have fun if you win that night, but it’s not worth wrecking your dog over. When we’re talking about thousands and thousands of dollars though, it’s stopped being about the animals, or about fun, and it’s just about numbers and money.
I really don’t want to see the breed vanish. I love them too much. But in a perfect world I would see them all as ‘pets with a job’ bred for a hobby rather than an industry.
annaxmalina
jacobvanloon
janainaart
stormborns
germansingergirl
