Greyhound racing industry in New

Zealand

Dying to entertain youBy Claire Sweeney

Opponents say

• Animals-as-entertainment business• Driven by a profit-focused gambling industry• A form of legalised animal abuse• Uses up dogs and discards when no longer

profitable

Advocates say

• Their animals are well looked after• The dogs love what they do• They are put down humanely, there is no

suffering• Greyhound racing is a business, just like

farming

Consider the five freedoms

• From thirst and hunger• From environmental discomfort• From injury or disease• To behave normally• From distress

The races

• Groups of 8 at high speed (up to 60 km/hr)• Chasing a fluffy lure• Spend long hours travelling in low trailers or

caged vans• At the track, more hours in confinement,

surrounded by other stressed, barking high-energy dogs

• 12 tracks in New Zealand• Very small crowds

The injuries• Injuries include skin tear, wounds,

fractured legs and hocks, severe muscle cramping, trauma and

‘blown toes’• Injuries are not ‘accidents’ as they

are a predictable result of racing• Many injuries ‘career ending’ in an

industry that has no use for animals no longer able to run

Running for their lives

• Begin racing at 18-22 months and continue for 2-3 years

• Race an average of 3 times in 14 days• Some break legs during trialling and do not

make it to their first race• Large numbers of dogs do not make it out of

the industry alive

Euthanasia

Each year in New Zealand large numbers of greyhounds are euthanised due to

• No longer winners• Not suitable for breeding

• Injuries such as broken hocks and broken legs• Low prey drive

• Being too slow

The numbers

• An average 1182 pups born in NZ per year• An average 301 imported from Australia• Total 1483 every year• Of these only about half reach training age• 50 put down on tracks (average)• 93 kept by trainers• 140 rehomed through GAP(Greyhounds as Pets)• 55 kept for breeding• Leaves 1145 per annum unaccounted for• What happens to them?

In Australia

Up to 1000 per year are exported to Asia . These are countries known for their huge illegal trade in dog meat for human consumption.Many see out their days in confinement of laboratories and Universities and are subjected to cruel experiments.In Korea and China dogs are killed in the cruellest possible ways as they believe the rush of adrenalin through the dogs body as it dies in agony will increase human virility.Millions of dogs each year are electrocuted, strangled, skinned alive or bludgeoned to death in Korea.In 2004, a whimpering, dying greyhound was found buried alive in wasteland outside Hobart, with both ears cut off.

What to do?

• Stop betting! – Australians bet on NZ dogs, not everyone sees a problem.

• Ban racing! - around 80 trainers in NZ, plus many more workers out of a job; thousands of dogs needing to find homes or be put down; decrease our gambling problem

• Make owners more accountable for their dogs! – records kept of all births and deaths; lower euthanasia costs

• Adopt a greyhound! - www.greyhoundsaspets.org.nz• Make owners/breeders pay a fee for every pup born! – would

ensure only top dogs are bred from; could make owners try harder to race dogs rather than just put them down

Beautiful greyhounds, without doubt being killed, for no longer being of service to the gambling industry.That’s why this industry is inhumane and immoral!

• www.greyhoundsaspets.org.nz• www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

greyhound• www.thedogs.co.nz• www.3news.co.nz/shocking-ne

w-greyhound• www.smh.com.au• www.aact.org.au/

greyhounds.htm

GAPGreyhounds As Pets

Quiet, gentle and loyalVery loving creatures, crave companyTypically chase small animalsSensitive natureGenerally not barkersSleep close to 18 hours a dayNo road senseEats about the same as border colliewww.greyhoundsaspets.org.nz