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This episode contains some details of animal cruelty that some of you might find hard to listen to. If you want to skip today's episode, we'll be back again on Monday morning.
Already, and this is the Daily. This is the Daily, This is the Daily.
Ohs oh, now it makes sense.
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Friday, the twelfth of July.
I'm Zara, I'm Harry.
The New South Wales greyhound racing industry is being investigated after a former employee of the racing body detailed allegations of cover ups and abuse.
You asked me if we're going to shut down the greyhound racing industry, you deserve a direct answer, and we're not going to shut it down.
I think it's clear that they cannot be reformed. The message is that we're not buying the bullshit anymore.
In today's deep dive, we'll look at what the report says about the way greyhounds are treated in the sport and what the New South Wales government plans to do next. But first, Sarah, what's making headlines.
An investigation is underway after the bodies of a woman and a girl believed to be a mother and daughter were found in Sydney's northwest. Officers visited a home in the suburb of mass Field after a welfare concern was reported to police. New South Wales Police said a woman in her fifties and a teenager were found dead inside the house. The bodies are yet to be formally identified, but a crime scene has been established.
The Northern Territories Police Minister has ruled out extending a snap curfew called in Alice Springs earlier this week. It followed a recent spike in violence in the region. The three day curfew, which applied to both children and adults, came to an end on Thursday. Northern Territory authorities deemed an extension unnecessary.
Two in five working Australian women have experienced declining mental health over the past year. That's according to a new report from women's mental health advocacy group the Liptember Foundation. The findings follower survey of four and a half thousand Australians, depression, anxiety and body image issues were listed as the leading mental health issues facing working women.
And the good news basketball star Jannis ante to Campo will become Greece's first ever black Olympic flag bearer ate to Campo, whose parents emigrated from Nigeria to Greece before he was born, booked Greece's place in the Paris Games after a victory against Croatia in this month's qualifiers. He became a Greek citizen in twenty thirteen, before he was drafted into the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, the team he led to a championship in twenty twenty one.
Harry, I must confess that you have been around the office talking about this story this week, and that this is something I don't know a lot about. We're talking today about the greyhound industry. It's in the headlines, especially this week, but it's kind of been around for a little bit. Can you just give us a bit of an overview of the state of play when it comes to greyhound racing here in Australia.
So I was actually quite surprised to learn that Australia is just one of seven countries that has greyhound racing. Not every country in the world has greyhounds. In some countries it is banned, and in some particular states it's banned. If you think of the US, for instance, some states have greyhound racing. Some of them have outlawed it, and in Australia we have it in every state and territory
except the ACT. So greyhound racing is an industry that you could definitely say is fairly familiar with some controversies, and in particular, there have always been some concerns about animal welfare, about its association with the gambling industry, and some questions over whether racing bodies are being adequately regulated, that it's being overseen by an independent body and that it's following the rules.
This might be a really stupid question, and I know I'm not allowed to say that. I'm here because we read.
There's no silly questions, Sarah.
When we talk about greyhound racing, we're talking about like what happens with horses in horse racing, but just with greyhounds, right, dogs? Okay, so we're talking about dog races.
We're talking about dog race Okay.
I feel like the first time I saw it in the news was I believe it was a four corners investigation that was done by the ABC. What was that investigation about? Was that kind of the first point at which all eyes were on the greyhound racing industry.
It was definitely the biggest scandal around greyhound racing, especially in the last decade or so or the last twenty years. There's always been some murmurings about what has been happening in the industry, but I think that was one of these big moments where a lot of people's stomachs were
churned by what they saw on TV. So this particular investigation by the ABC exposed what is known as live baiting in the industry, which is what So this is where and I do apologize because this is some pretty gruesome detail to go through, but it's basically where a live animal is used as bait for a greyhound to chase on the race track.
Why would that be a thing? Why would they be doing that in the first instance, Well.
It goes back to dogs and they're just pure animalistic instinct, which is to chase down prey. And these prey in this particular circumstance is completely defenseless. It's just hanging off a rod that's being word around the track, and so they're encouraged to race after it and they will mould that animal once they get to it. So that is against the rules. It's not allowed. This particular expos in twenty fifteen discovered that it was actually being used and
it was actually quite widespread as well. It wasn't just one outlandish track, it was multiple tracks right up and down the country.
Okay, And so that was exposed. You said back in twenty fifteen, what happened? Were there any changes to the industry if we're saying it was fairly widespread, did anything change?
So there were definitely some major consequences. Few officials and trainers were dismissed and banned from ever competing in greyhound racing again or being involved in the industry, i should say. And there were a number of state reviews into the industry altogether. And this is where we come to New South Wales because at the time it was led by a coalition government under former Premier Mike Baird, who actually
passed ben on greyhound racing, remember that twenty sixteen. Yeah, and it was a pretty big move at the time. It was the first state to do so.
So was that in response to what had happened.
There had been a special Commission of inquiry. So this big investigation, this big statewide review after the expos a and then the state decided to ban the industry altogether. The report he has produced is chilling, confronting.
It's horrific.
A ban was legislated here in New South Wales. But it's eight years later and we're talking about greyhound's in New South Wales again.
What's happened during that time?
The ban actually never came into place, so it had been legislated to start the following year, but within three months of that legislation passing, the government decided to overturn it. So today I can announce that the greyhound industry will be given that one last year.
It'll be given an opportunity to reform as it needs to.
Now. One of the areas of reform involved bringing in a new regulator, the Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Institute, and that was put in place to monitor animal welfare and to make sure the industry as a whole was complying with the new rules.
Okay, so there was this new body that was set up to regulate the industry and to make sure that the rules were being followed here in New South Wales. Is that what has happened?
As far as we knew, there was compliance, there was more reporting. There was an annual report that would come out every year and then we come to June this year. So there was a vet. His name was doctor Alex Britton. He worked as the top veterinarian at Greyhound Racing New South Wales and he left his post in June and when he quit he put together a handover document. Normally I would think a guide to what would the next
person doing the role have to do? Can they log into the server and those kinds of things, But instead he wrote a fifty four page long analysis of what he thought were some areas of concern within the greyhound racing industry. So he included in this documents, emails, photos, spreadsheets,
you name it. He had it basically backing up some of his concerns about animal welfare, about this alleged cover up that had been going on within the industry itself, and Doc Britton he was scathing and there's a quote I pulled out from it that I think sums up his views. He said, the Greyhound Racing Body has been quote misrepresenting and obfuscating the facts.
Right, So some fairly severe language there. What exactly are his accusations?
So he covered off many parts of the industry, But I think it's helpful to split his report into two key areas, so the first being dog injuries. Britain said current practices are putting dogs at higher risk of injury. So, for example, he pointed to the fact that some greyhound racing tracks are using hard clay. In places like the UK, it's pretty much all wet sand that the dogs are racing on and that's better for their pores and avoids
serious injuries. He also said the way that the new South Wales Racing Body pays greyhound owners is also adding to the increased risk of dog injuries because as it stands at the moment, trainers given sixty dollars for every greyhound they bring to race day.
So is the logic then that people are trying to enter more greyhounds into races because they'll be paid.
More, exactly, So that's what Britain's saying. There's an incentive they're being goaded into bringing as many dogs as possible and that has led to an increased risk of injury. So that could be that there's just more of a chance with dog being hurt when they're racing, or trainers might be racing animals that just aren't fit to do so.
This man's role was as a vet for greyhound racing New South Wales, so presumably he had a role in protecting these animals to some degree. What are the rules around the health of greyhounds? What was his role meant to be So.
When it comes to Britain's role specifically as a vet, he noted that vets are there on race day under the new rules and they need to inspect the well being of the racing dogs. But he said that in some cases vets are only given forty five minutes to inspect as many as one hundred to one hundred and twenty dogs at a time, so he calculated that to be about thirty seconds per dog, and he said it makes it pretty much impossible for them to fully undergo
a health assessment of each greyhound before they race. And also in New South Wales, greyhounds are allowed to race every second day and Britain points out that in Queensland and Western Australia the rules required dogs only race no more than twice a week to recover between those races.
What else did he say about the conditions of these dogs.
He included some photos of kennels in Western Sydney which are used to hold some of the dogs before the races, and these images showed blood smeared on the floor of some small kennels with what he said were rotten and rusted cages, so not exactly ideal conditions for the dogs, and he said that it was also causing some problems with their pores. They'd be scraping up against some of these cages, and it just wasn't a very suitable environment for a dog that's about to go out onto a racing track.
And so part of this handover document, I don't even know if we can call it that, but part of this document is about the conditions and the welfare of the animals. But from what I understand, there was another part about the industry at large.
Right, Yeah, So the second big part of his report looked at what's known as rehoming rates. So that's either when you adopt out a dog to go live with a family or to go live in a residential property, or if the dog stays on an owner's property itself, so basically where the dog goes to live for the rest of its life. Before a greyhound can be adopted, though, it needs to be des sext and this is something that Greyhound Racing New South Wales actually pays owners to
do as an incentive so they cover that cost. And so what Alex Britton noted was he believed that the numbers of rehomed dogs as reported by Greyhound Racing New South Wales were grossly exaggerated. So for instance, he pointed to the figures in twenty twenty three, so the body had said that two two hundred dogs had been rehomed, but then he pointed out a gap because the regulator had said that one six hundred and fifty dogs had been rehomed in that year, so that's about a five
hundred and fifty dog gap. And he alleges that this gap comes from the racing body counting to sex dogs as re home dogs. But that's not necessarily the case, because he says in reality owners will either keep the dogs or pay to send them to these boarding shelters where they live out. What he says is a miserable
post racing lives in these industrial sized kennels. So think of those massive cages with not much room to move on big properties, and that's where all these greyhounds apparently are being sent to to live out the rest of their lives.
So obviously this is just one individual who has alleged a number of wrongdoings on behalf of this industry. How has the racing body responded to all of this?
The CEO of Greyhound Racing New South Wales, Rob McCauley, resigned on Tuesday after the media started reporting on the accusations.
In his resignation statement, he defended the industry as a key source of income and jobs and prosperity for communities right across New South Wales and in a statement that was sent to the Daily Os, Greyhound Racing New South Wales said it takes quote any claims or concern related to animal welfare or the integrity of our rehoming programs very seriously and all seven members of the racing board have been given until today Friday to show cause to
the Minister for Racing as to why they also shouldn't lose their jobs.
Very strong kind of follow on effects.
There as far as an organization being held responsible and accountable. This immediately absolutely.
Right and so what happens to the industry, I mean, clearly there have been quite immediate consequences for Greyhound Racing New South Wales. But what happens to the industry at large? Do you think it'll be banned?
So the Premier Chris Mins was asked his very question the other day about whether the industry at large would be banned, which is what former Premier Mike Bed tried to do back in twenty sixteen.
Look, we're not going to shut down the industry, but we do take this report seriously.
The regulator also said it's going to launch an investigation, but the Greens and the Animal Justice Party say an inquiry won't be enough. I spoke with Upper House Greens MP Abigail Boyd who said she thinks these revelations could be a repeat of what that Four Corners episode back in twenty fifteen triggered.
I'm hoping that people really begin to understand that this is a cruel, cruel industry that seeing thousands of dogs die and be injured and be left for dead in every single year.
This doesn't feel like a party specific issue. We have had a labor government here respond But previously, as you said, Mike Bed, who was a coalition premier, tried to ban the industry.
What have we heard from the coalition in New South Wales.
A spokesperson for the Shadow Racing Minister Kevin Anderson told The Daily Odds that he is monitoring the situation closely. That didn't go into any further details, so there's plenty of developments to still come to light. It's a bit uncertain at the moment what's going to happen with the board.
We're going to find out a bit more today, I believe, because that's the deadline that was given to the board to show cause why they shouldn't be let go and what is going to happen more broadly with greyhound racing in New South Wales.
Harry, thanks so much for explaining that, and thank you for listening to another week of the Daily Ods. If you learn something, please send it to a friend. It is the way that people find out about our podcast and certainly about the Daily Ods more generally. We'll be back again on Monday morning, but have a fabulous weekend.
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Runda Bungelung Kalgotin from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadigol people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.