Greyhound Carcasses Found In Bundaberg Bushland

[Maddy]

The greyhound racing industry has a problem and it needs to fix it. It also has the money and should fund the repairs if it wants to see a long term solution to current woes.

I absolutely agree with you but.. it's really not that simple. Changes have to be made in a number of areas, with the support of the participants and without angling those changes towards ending the industry (because participants will never support changes intended to put them out of business).

The changes needed aren't things like limiting breeding in itself but instead, broadening the grading system (to include slower dogs- as I've pointed out before, a race between a bunch of slow dogs is still a race), changing qualifying requirements so that dogs aren't excluded before they've even had a chance to race and keeping dogs in work longer so that breeding restrictions aren't as necessary to start with.

If the average greyhound could work up until the age of four (or even five), dogs would need "replacing" with less frequency (so less litters bred), which in turn would reduce pressure on rescue/rehoming groups- meaning that those dogs would have a better chance at being rehomed. For dogs who are injured and unable to continue racing at a younger age, the reduced number of dogs flowing into rescues would also benefit them, not just because of more space available but also more resources available for treatment and care. It'd be great to see a change that would bring about the closure of certain greyhound warehousing "rescues" where dogs are living within the bare minimums of welfare standards, while those groups continue to accept numbers beyond their capacity simply because the dogs are there for the taking.

This is a good idea but it wouldn't have helped two of the babies I helped raise for a bit over 12mths, from one of the lets do a deal litters, whose lives ended a couple of days ago. Their first time owner with stars in his eyes and money to burn didn't want dogs that paid their way (they had both won races), he wanted dogs that won him substantial amounts of money, he wanted to play with the big boys. They weren't even two yrs old, both of those dogs would have made lovely pets. It was a very bitter pill for me to swallow even though I knew that it was inevitable that not all the dogs (who I knew much better than their owners did) were going to live their life out as they should.

An example of this is, one of the owners came to check up on his dogs, I wasn't there and the boss who didn't know the dogs as well as I did accidently showed this owner the wrong dogs. There were dogs with colours in the litter he was shown that weren't in his litter and the owner was none the wiser.

It's not the answer to all of the problems but no one thing would be- each issue within the industry needs to be dealt with through a series of changes aimed at reducing demand for breeding, reducing destruction of otherwise rehomable dogs and tighter management of welfare.

In many ways, welfare of racing dogs is easier to control because unlike the general public, you can put rules in place that couldn't be passed as state law. If a person wants to participate, they have to abide by those rules (provided they don't conflict with state or federal law).

[Greyt]

This is a good idea but it wouldn't have helped two of the babies I helped raise for a bit over 12mths, from one of the lets do a deal litters, whose lives ended a couple of days ago. Their first time owner with stars in his eyes and money to burn didn't want dogs that paid their way (they had both won races), he wanted dogs that won him substantial amounts of money, he wanted to play with the big boys. They weren't even two yrs old, both of those dogs would have made lovely pets. It was a very bitter pill for me to swallow even though I knew that it was inevitable that not all the dogs (who I knew much better than their owners did) were going to live their life out as they should.

An example of this is, one of the owners came to check up on his dogs, I wasn't there and the boss who didn't know the dogs as well as I did accidently showed this owner the wrong dogs. There were dogs with colours in the litter he was shown that weren't in his litter and the owner was none the wiser.

That is such a sad story m-j. One of so, so many.

[Greyt]

In many ways, welfare of racing dogs is easier to control because unlike the general public, you can put rules in place that couldn't be passed as state law. If a person wants to participate, they have to abide by those rules (provided they don't conflict with state or federal law).

True that, but with all the legal eagles out there these days citing restraint of trade and other such laws, sometimes even creating what the average person would consider reasonable and just regulations and legislation becomes a minefield.

[Little Gifts]

It's not the answer to all of the problems but no one thing would be- each issue within the industry needs to be dealt with through a series of changes aimed at reducing demand for breeding, reducing destruction of otherwise rehomable dogs and tighter management of welfare.

In many ways, welfare of racing dogs is easier to control because unlike the general public, you can put rules in place that couldn't be passed as state law. If a person wants to participate, they have to abide by those rules (provided they don't conflict with state or federal law).

Very interesting about the review in QLD now being made into an inquiry. That's exactly what I've been feeling up here - the general public are not willing to let this issue go - the mass grave tipped them over the edge of fence sitting.

I've bolded your bit above Maddy because that is what I hope happens too. I know some of you don't feel it is feasible or likely but I do hope breeding numbers are also reduced or capped because as we have seen commented on in this thread, greyhounds are competing with other breeds of dog in the adoption stakes and they have some traits that also reduce the number of potential homes that can ever be out there for them. We can not resolve the end issue - the excessive number of healthy greys being destroyed, if there is no change to the number produced each year in the first place.

[gapvic]

[WreckitWhippet]

Nice man, I like him