labadore

Because certain nutjob "rescue" groups give all of rescue a bad name by encouraging their supporters to harass trainers, spreading misinformation about the industry and treating everyone involved in the industry as if they were all monsters. It got so bad that even just being neutral on the racing issue is enough to get you abusive messages and death threats. If you were a greyhound trainer, would you invite someone onto your property to collect a dog if you knew they were probably packing a hidden camera and preparing resources to later raid your kennels and/or home? You can't call someone a murdering monster and then expect them to be willing to work with you. The abuse I copped was horrendous, despite the fact that I rehomed responsibly and had/have contributed to Greyhound rescue with $, food and donations for years. Was your experience with GAP or some other greyhound rescue. I would have thought that with GAP being a greyhound racing industry initiative that they would receive the majority of greyhounds to be rehomed from owners/trainers as the owners/trainers would be more comfortable dealing with an adoption program initiated by their own industry.

Because the law will say they need to be responsible and each dog will have a paper trail. But how will that stop owners opting to have the dog killed ? Because the law could state that they need to rehome their dog rather than op to euth their dog. I'm not naive enough to believe that all will adhere to the law but if they realise that there are severe consequences that will be dished out .i.e. if it costs a lot more to not obey the law than to foot the bill of looking after that dog until it is rehomed and the chances of them being monitored and caught are also in place, it will stop the majority. How will that work as currently any dog owner can opt to have their dog euthanised, irrespective of their age, health, condition or breed, so I cannot see how they can make a law to make it illegal for just greyhounds to be euthanised. If they did make this law you are proposing, how on earth will be it monitored and policed, given estimates of say 15,000 - 18,000 greyhounds are born each year into the industry. The current rules and regulations are not being enforced, so I cannot see any new ones being enforced. The greyhound racing industry will just carry on as they have for many years with financial considerations of the industry being placed ahead of the welfare of the greyhounds. With regards to removing the gambling/betting from the industry and running the industry as a hobby/sport mentioned in some posts, how will this work given the industry revolves around gambling and betting with billions of dollars involved annually and propped up by the state governments as millions of dollars are poured into government coffers from greyound racing annually. The owners that race their greyhounds as a "hobby/sport" are in the minority and may only own one or a couple of greyhounds and are small fish in a big pond of big players who are responsible for breeding and killing thousands of greyhounds each year. The old argument for keeping the industry going to avoid thousands of greyhounds being killed if the industry were to be shutdown, needs to be questioned as currently thousands are being killed each year anyway and extremely low numbers are being rehomed , so how many of the 15,000-18,000 greyhounds born each year in this industry are actually surviving anyway, to justify keeping the industry going?

My apologies, should have said The Australian Greyhound Racing Association was established in 1960's and I will amend my other post accordingly. Thanks :)

The greyhound racing industry culture will NEVER change to the standards the community in this day and age expect. To do that would mean they would need to put the welfare of the greyhounds above all else and that is just not going to happen. The Australian Greyhound Racing Association (AGRA) that played a significant role in the progression of rules was established in Australia in the 1960's and is divided into many state governing bodies, which regulate greyhound welfare and living conditions and the greyhound racing industry seems stuck in the 1960's time warp with outdated practices and policies. They have had over 50 years to significantly improve the welfare of the greyhounds and they have failed miserably in doing this. They are only making noises about changing things now that they are firmly and squarely in the spotlight. Once the spotlight goes away, they will return to what they have always been doing. This industry is complicit in the mass killings/wastage of thousands of greyhounds each year and have made admissions to this effect i.e. in 2012 Brent Hogan the GRNSWCEO at the time said in the ABC story on background briefing on greyhound racing that 3000 greyhounds were killed each year in the NSW racing industry. You can almost guarantee the number is double of what was admitted and that is in NSW only.

Another update on this story with the woman being charged has also been issued a welfare infringement notice this morning after RSPCA visited the property on a cane farm on the outskirts of Bundaberg where a number of greyhounds are kept in makeshift pens and the scene was described as “disturbing”. See article and link below: Bundaberg woman issued infringement notice after RSPCA visit

Hopefully this will be the nail in the coffin of an awful industry that trades in the misery, suffering and deaths of thousands of greyhounds each year. It will certainly add fuel to the fire for the QLD Racing Industry which has already suspended a total of 36 Queensland trainers over the live baiting scandal, with six issued with life bans and the Minister for Sport and Racing Bill Byrne has directed Racing Queensland to stop work on construction of a new greyhound track at Cronulla Park in Logan, pending the outcome of the independent review into the greyhound racing industry that is now under way. Full media statement and link below: Minister stops work on greyhound track Edited to add link to media statement

A wonderful charity providing an invaluable community service. These wonderful dogs are life changing for these disabled people. How cute are those pups with their "L" plates, just gorgeous

Like the live baiting, this appalling find of dead greyhound remains en-masse is not an isolated instance and is part and parcel of the greyhound racing industry "wastage" . I have made my position on the greyhound racing industry very clear in the other greyhound racing thread, this industry needs to be shutdown. Whilst it continues operating, thousands of greyhounds will continue to lose their lives every year and thousands more will continue to live a life of misery and the financial considerations of the industry will continue to be placed ahead of the welfare of the greyhounds

Link to official Vic govt article re the above story and official govt article in full below: More work to be done by LDH

Goddam it why hasn't the Board been sacked yet. An audit on the donations and where the money has been spent needs to be done and made public as it sure as hell hasn't been spent on making the poor animals that have survived in this awful place, comfortable. LDH put on government watch list

So sorry to read of this darling girl's passing , I remember her story well. A true canine hero who did an amazing job. Run free Sarbi your job is done and thank you for your service and amazing courage. You will be remembered and missed by many. Thoughts are with your handler and family during this very difficult time.

See Rebanne, this is always the argument about shutting down the industry and I accept there will be casualties, even if the industry is phased out, rather than shutdown immediately, but what about the thousands of greyhounds that will continue to be bred, mass killed and thousands more suffering year in year out, if the industry is allowed to continue? Also we keep hearing that greyhound racing people "love their dogs and treat them like family", so why would they all of sudden have no compunction in abandoning their dogs en-masse if the industry were to be shutdown/phased out? most of the owner/trainers will do the right thing, the big guys aren't going to hang onto 100's of dogs, they'll be the first to dump and run. I'm just pointing out that I don't think it will make any difference if the industry is shut down straight away or phased in. Casualties will be very, very high. And the public need to be prepared for that. These are, after all, working dogs and lots of people can't afford to keep and feed working dogs who don't work, what ever sort of work they should do. Government will have to chip in with big bucks somewhere along the line. This is the conumdrum though isn't it as there are already very very high casualties year in year out for the greyhounds in this industry and these casualties will continue each year the industry continues operating if it is not shutdown/phased out. No doubt these issues will be part of the discussions in the independent State inquiries.

There was discussion on this somewhere on FB and below is a rough list of concerns/questions that will need to be addressed- 1. How will the dog be housed? Tasmania can get really cold, especially down in the southern midlands. Dogs will need access to proper indoor areas in winter. 2. How many dogs will this facility hold? If they plan to take every dog offered, space for at least 200 dogs will be needed, along with exercise/day yards to accommodate that number. 3. Will day/exercise yards be graded/maintained for the safety of the dogs? Many greys are a bit clumsy at the best of times, allowing dogs to gallop in rocky paddocks could be costly at the vet. 4. How will the dogs be monitored when out in day/exercise yards? This applies especially if left out in pairs or groups. Muzzles will not prevent squabbles. 5. Assuming this is going to be a kennel situation, how will dogs actually be prepared for life in a home? This applies to housetraining, socialisation, etc. 6. Are the dogs going to be properly temperament and prey drive assessed by an experienced person? I've heard some very worrying stories about greys coming out of Brightside, lack of testing is going to prove entirely unsustainable very quickly, once untested dogs are being put out to the public in large numbers (and the inevitable problems start to occur). 7. What will happen to dogs that fail prey drive or temperament assessment? Will they be housed indefinitely in a shelter situation? If so, the shelter will need to expand on a regular basis to account for the growing number of dogs. 8. Assuming it will be larger numbers of dogs, how will it be managed to ensure individual welfare requirements are met? This especially applies for failed dogs where minimum standards of welfare are not sufficient to maintain the actual welfare. In such dogs, will there be plans in place to ensure their receive adequate mental/physically/social stimulation? 9. Given Animals Australia and Brightside are animal rights organisations, what will the dogs be eating? Vegan kibble? Regular kibble? Fresh meat? Assuming even a low quality kibble ($1.50 per dog/day), feed bills could easily run into the tens of thousands per year, possibly much higher. 10. Where will funding for their care come from? From my experience, each dog costs at least $500 to rehome and this is without any wages being paid and assuming the dog is rehomed within a few weeks of becoming available. To provide adequate care for each dog, there must be staff available to feed, water, exercise and provide social contact for each dog. Volunteers are great but cannot be relied upon for the daily care of the dogs. Considering costs of staff, food, preventative vet care (wormers, flea treatment, etc). I did some very quick numbers and assuming only two staff (working 8 hour days) and the dogs being fed a very basic food and receiving basic preventative vet care, the yearly running cost would be $222,856. This does not include routine vet work for each dog or things like beds, coats, toys, collars, leads, muzzles, emergency vet expenses or anything else. That number also does not include building or maintaining the kennels, power, water. It'd be difficult to calculate an actual number per year but it would probably be in the millions, if it's done properly. All valid concerns and will need to be addressed by the animal rights organisations in setting up and running this sanctuary, otherwise they themselves will be coming in for criticism. Labadore with respect these are not just concerns they are cold, hard facts. There is no room for "otherwise" when you propose to shut down an industry that has thousands of dogs that all of a sudden need somewhere to go and a good percentage of them are not rehomable. Please don't miscontrue my post just because we are on opposing sides of this debate . With regard to proposing to shutdown the industry, nowhere have I proposed that it be shutdown immediately. In fact, in some of my earlier posts, I have metioned that it should be shutdown over a period of time in a "phased-in" approach to avoid the issue of thousands of dogs being dumped at once by their so called "caring owners". Most rational thinking people who oppose the greyhound racing industry and want it shutdown, want it shutdown in a phased-in approach. I find it interesting that pro greyhound racing people like to insinuate that if the industry did shutdown, it would be immediately and this is obviously a "scaremongering" tactic aimed at anti greyhound racing people like myself, rather than applying commonsense and logic to their argument. Obviously pro greyhound racing people have a vested interest in this industry continuing, so I suppose it makes sense they use the arguments and scaremongering that they do to try and ensure its survival. Tis a shame that the killing and suffering of thousands of poor greyhounds in this industry will continue and don't rate a mention from the proponents of this awful industry. Who are these "rational" thinking people who oppose the greyhound racing industry you speak of? The ones that track down people IRL and threaten their families, make anonymous phone calls at 1am and say things like "watch your back scum" those ones? Like the charmer that told me yesterday to get a f*cking real job and stop using my greyhounds for profit, even though I had clearly written that I was in greyhound rescue, not a trainer or owner of racing greys. When I once again explained that fact I was then told that I really do want to get into the industry and that I am just a low piece of sh*t. The poster then deleted the whole thread, when they realize that they maybe god forbid wrong they delete and block. That's how they roll. Can you point out the rational part of that conversation? Scaremonger is a good word actually because that's what the anti extremists do best and as I have said a million times, their threats and intimidation of people makes them no better than the industry they so vehemently despise. Do you know the meaning of "can't see the forest for the trees? I believe it applies here and to the industry as whole. You don't need to be a greyhound expert to have an opinion on this industry and its failings, it is glaringly obvious for all to see. People from outside the industry/situation can view things more objectively and that is the reason why people from outside the industry have been brought in to conduct the various State inquiries into the Greyhound Racing industry and why the State greyhound boards in NSW and VIC were sacked/resigned as nothing will change if they stayed in place and reform needs to start from the top down if there is any chance of reform happening. The industry has done an abysmal job of self regulating and cleaning up its act despite the numerous warnings it has had over the years and meanwhile thousands of poor greyhounds continue to suffer . The old "go away and don't try to tell us who have been doing this for x number of years/head in the sand stuff" doesn't cut it anymore and no industry/company/person is above scrutiny from the outside. The whole idea of a forum is so people can express their views on a subject and people should be able to express their views without being labelled as "anti-extremists/animal rights nutters etc" just because they have opposing views on the subject matter being discussed. Whilst I accept there are "extremists" in any group, there are actually a large number of us more "moderate" people who campaign for some kind of social change on issues we feel passionate about and this is one such issue I feel passionately about.

See Rebanne, this is always the argument about shutting down the industry and I accept there will be casualties, even if the industry is phased out, rather than shutdown immediately, but what about the thousands of greyhounds that will continue to be bred, mass killed and thousands more suffering year in year out, if the industry is allowed to continue? Also we keep hearing that greyhound racing people "love their dogs and treat them like family", so why would they all of sudden have no compunction in abandoning their dogs en-masse if the industry were to be shutdown/phased out? There are no words for how incredibly angry and disgusted this comment makes me. Some of us here have put our lives in rescuing greyhounds and for someone like you to come along and suggest our concerns for their welfare are scaremongering to keep the industry going.. you really are clueless. I suppose at the end of the day, no skin off your nose if this shelter all goes to shit because you won't have to help clean up that mess Edited to add: I've said this god knows how many times before but some people still haven't got it so here it is again: I am not pro racing, I am not involved in the industry, I do not benefit (financially or otherwise) from greyhound racing. Your anger and disgust is misplaced, why don’t you redirect that anger and disgust to the industry that is responsible for you having to rescue greyhounds and is responsible for mass killings and sufferings of thousands of greyhounds every year.

There was discussion on this somewhere on FB and below is a rough list of concerns/questions that will need to be addressed- 1. How will the dog be housed? Tasmania can get really cold, especially down in the southern midlands. Dogs will need access to proper indoor areas in winter. 2. How many dogs will this facility hold? If they plan to take every dog offered, space for at least 200 dogs will be needed, along with exercise/day yards to accommodate that number. 3. Will day/exercise yards be graded/maintained for the safety of the dogs? Many greys are a bit clumsy at the best of times, allowing dogs to gallop in rocky paddocks could be costly at the vet. 4. How will the dogs be monitored when out in day/exercise yards? This applies especially if left out in pairs or groups. Muzzles will not prevent squabbles. 5. Assuming this is going to be a kennel situation, how will dogs actually be prepared for life in a home? This applies to housetraining, socialisation, etc. 6. Are the dogs going to be properly temperament and prey drive assessed by an experienced person? I've heard some very worrying stories about greys coming out of Brightside, lack of testing is going to prove entirely unsustainable very quickly, once untested dogs are being put out to the public in large numbers (and the inevitable problems start to occur). 7. What will happen to dogs that fail prey drive or temperament assessment? Will they be housed indefinitely in a shelter situation? If so, the shelter will need to expand on a regular basis to account for the growing number of dogs. 8. Assuming it will be larger numbers of dogs, how will it be managed to ensure individual welfare requirements are met? This especially applies for failed dogs where minimum standards of welfare are not sufficient to maintain the actual welfare. In such dogs, will there be plans in place to ensure their receive adequate mental/physically/social stimulation? 9. Given Animals Australia and Brightside are animal rights organisations, what will the dogs be eating? Vegan kibble? Regular kibble? Fresh meat? Assuming even a low quality kibble ($1.50 per dog/day), feed bills could easily run into the tens of thousands per year, possibly much higher. 10. Where will funding for their care come from? From my experience, each dog costs at least $500 to rehome and this is without any wages being paid and assuming the dog is rehomed within a few weeks of becoming available. To provide adequate care for each dog, there must be staff available to feed, water, exercise and provide social contact for each dog. Volunteers are great but cannot be relied upon for the daily care of the dogs. Considering costs of staff, food, preventative vet care (wormers, flea treatment, etc). I did some very quick numbers and assuming only two staff (working 8 hour days) and the dogs being fed a very basic food and receiving basic preventative vet care, the yearly running cost would be $222,856. This does not include routine vet work for each dog or things like beds, coats, toys, collars, leads, muzzles, emergency vet expenses or anything else. That number also does not include building or maintaining the kennels, power, water. It'd be difficult to calculate an actual number per year but it would probably be in the millions, if it's done properly. All valid concerns and will need to be addressed by the animal rights organisations in setting up and running this sanctuary, otherwise they themselves will be coming in for criticism. Labadore with respect these are not just concerns they are cold, hard facts. There is no room for "otherwise" when you propose to shut down an industry that has thousands of dogs that all of a sudden need somewhere to go and a good percentage of them are not rehomable. Please don't miscontrue my post just because we are on opposing sides of this debate . With regard to proposing to shutdown the industry, nowhere have I proposed that it be shutdown immediately. In fact, in some of my earlier posts, I have metioned that it should be shutdown over a period of time in a "phased-in" approach to avoid the issue of thousands of dogs being dumped at once by their so called "caring owners". Most rational thinking people who oppose the greyhound racing industry and want it shutdown, want it shutdown in a phased-in approach. I find it interesting that pro greyhound racing people like to insinuate that if the industry did shutdown, it would be immediately and this is obviously a "scaremongering" tactic aimed at anti greyhound racing people like myself, rather than applying commonsense and logic to their argument. Obviously pro greyhound racing people have a vested interest in this industry continuing, so I suppose it makes sense they use the arguments and scaremongering that they do to try and ensure its survival. Tis a shame that the killing and suffering of thousands of poor greyhounds in this industry will continue and don't rate a mention from the proponents of this awful industry.

If you are keen on a second Lab but want something smaller, why don't you look for a smaller female Lab and I mean smaller than the norm. At one of the dog parks we go, there are a couple of small female labs that play with my boys and they are just adorably cute, particularly the little black girl who I have fallen in love with and I would take in an instant if her family ever decided they didn't want her. She is a little pocket rocket and obsessed with playing fetch and my boys just love her and the other little choccy girl. Both my Lab boys are actually really good with the little ones as my youngest (5) has been going to dog parks since he was approx 6monts old so has played a lot with the littlies and my other boy who I adopted had a younger little breed brother. That sounds very cute and would be lovely to see. Have a real soft spot for the Corgis as my mum adopted one years ago and she was just the most beautiful dog and we all adored her.

Really sorry you have been given this devastating news about your beloved boy and know only too well how gut wrenching it is to receive this type of news My thoughts are with you and your beloved boy during this difficult time :hug:

There was discussion on this somewhere on FB and below is a rough list of concerns/questions that will need to be addressed- 1. How will the dog be housed? Tasmania can get really cold, especially down in the southern midlands. Dogs will need access to proper indoor areas in winter. 2. How many dogs will this facility hold? If they plan to take every dog offered, space for at least 200 dogs will be needed, along with exercise/day yards to accommodate that number. 3. Will day/exercise yards be graded/maintained for the safety of the dogs? Many greys are a bit clumsy at the best of times, allowing dogs to gallop in rocky paddocks could be costly at the vet. 4. How will the dogs be monitored when out in day/exercise yards? This applies especially if left out in pairs or groups. Muzzles will not prevent squabbles. 5. Assuming this is going to be a kennel situation, how will dogs actually be prepared for life in a home? This applies to housetraining, socialisation, etc. 6. Are the dogs going to be properly temperament and prey drive assessed by an experienced person? I've heard some very worrying stories about greys coming out of Brightside, lack of testing is going to prove entirely unsustainable very quickly, once untested dogs are being put out to the public in large numbers (and the inevitable problems start to occur). 7. What will happen to dogs that fail prey drive or temperament assessment? Will they be housed indefinitely in a shelter situation? If so, the shelter will need to expand on a regular basis to account for the growing number of dogs. 8. Assuming it will be larger numbers of dogs, how will it be managed to ensure individual welfare requirements are met? This especially applies for failed dogs where minimum standards of welfare are not sufficient to maintain the actual welfare. In such dogs, will there be plans in place to ensure their receive adequate mental/physically/social stimulation? 9. Given Animals Australia and Brightside are animal rights organisations, what will the dogs be eating? Vegan kibble? Regular kibble? Fresh meat? Assuming even a low quality kibble ($1.50 per dog/day), feed bills could easily run into the tens of thousands per year, possibly much higher. 10. Where will funding for their care come from? From my experience, each dog costs at least $500 to rehome and this is without any wages being paid and assuming the dog is rehomed within a few weeks of becoming available. To provide adequate care for each dog, there must be staff available to feed, water, exercise and provide social contact for each dog. Volunteers are great but cannot be relied upon for the daily care of the dogs. Considering costs of staff, food, preventative vet care (wormers, flea treatment, etc). I did some very quick numbers and assuming only two staff (working 8 hour days) and the dogs being fed a very basic food and receiving basic preventative vet care, the yearly running cost would be $222,856. This does not include routine vet work for each dog or things like beds, coats, toys, collars, leads, muzzles, emergency vet expenses or anything else. That number also does not include building or maintaining the kennels, power, water. It'd be difficult to calculate an actual number per year but it would probably be in the millions, if it's done properly. All valid concerns and will need to be addressed by the animal rights organisations in setting up and running this sanctuary, otherwise they themselves will be coming in for criticism.

This. I'd elaborate on my support of this but.. I've been saying these things for years and no one listens anyway so.. This demonstrates just how out of touch Greyhounds Australasia and I daresay the management of Greyhound Racing is with rehoming of Greyhounds and greyhound welfare. It was also probably said to try and appease a very vocal and angry public and head off any further scathing criticism of the industry in these areas. I remember reading an earlier published article about this proposed sanctuary and requesting state and industry funding for it. I have found the article and link and article in full below: States, industry bodies pushed to fund greyhound sanctuary

should have happened earlier, like in NSW, and the article below evens mentions "He also agreed that Victoria had “absolutely” fallen behind other states in responding to the crisis". THE Greyhound Racing Victoria board has quit in the wake of a damning report

Completely agree with you. I am not even a greyhound owner, (I have Labs) but feel passionately disgusted about the awful things that happen to this beautiful breed in the name of greyhound racing Has there ever been a dog breed so exploited and treated so horrendously by man? . This poor breed has been subject for years to: Over breeding Killed en-masse by both illegal and legal means High injury rates Live in abject misery in sub par welfare conditions Bled for their blood before being euthanised by Vets Large numbers "donated" for veterinary teaching (see article in link below), Exported overseas mainly to Asia, where they suffer in horrific conditions - the articles and pics of greyhounds exported to Asia are truly distressing and because of this, I won't provide any links to these, but can be found easily enough if people do the relevant searches Time for this industry and its "dark age" practices and participants to go! Destruction of greyhounds distresses vet students

Link to video on story on The Project on Monday night regarding lifelong sanctuary for greyhound victims - "Rehoming discarded greyhounds": Rehoming discarded greyhounds Below the video, Greyhounds Australasia responds to philanthropic initiative and has issued a statement which I have quoted in full below:

How terrible and tragic, poor boy, poor owner must be devastated, Run free gorgeous boy Hope they find the scum that did this

Mass killing of unwanted greyhounds set to be reinvestigated - Investigating claims of the mass shooting of unwanted greyhounds will be one of the first tasks of the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into the industry, as a further eight dogs have been suspended over concerns they were exposed to live baiting Full article and link below: Mass killing of unwanted greyhounds set to be reinvestigated

The NSW inquiry into the greyhound racing industry by Justice McHugh is to be given "royal commission powers" as "Mr McHugh had asked for special powers to get to the bottom of the issues facing the industry" and the Special Commission of Inquiry will examine the entire industry including animal welfare issues as well as the failure of industry management and supervision . Link and full article below: Special commission to investigate greyhound racing