Image: NSW Premier Chris Minns (AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi)
NSW Premier Chris Minns has ruled out shutting down the greyhound racing industry following a damning report of systemic animal cruelty.
In a handover letter addressed to Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW), former chief veterinary officer Alex Brittan denounced the industry as “unsustainable”. He also alleged that rehoming rates were inflated and that dogs were experiencing a huge increase in injuries as a result of being raced at unhealthy intensities.
Hours after The Sydney Morning Herald published the allegations, the chief executive of GRNSW, Robert McCauley, resigned.
NSW Gaming Minister David Harris said an inquiry would investigate the allegations, but said “some of these issues can be worked out.”
“This is not about closing the industry down. It’s about making sure that they can be the best they can be. I don’t apologise for that,” Harris said.
Minns said on Wednesday that the government would not shut down the industry, but that “we do take this report seriously.”
“And I know that it’s the minister [who] is assessing the criticisms … they’ll be investigated, they’ll be fully investigated.”
In his parting document, Brittan said, “Until the existing backlog of un-rehomed greyhounds is acknowledged and addressed, it is utterly immoral to allow yet more greyhounds to enter this unsustainable morass of exploitation and suffering.”
According to the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds, there have been 68 greyhound deaths on Australian tracks since the beginning of 2024. 6022 have been injured.
In NSW, 10 greyhounds have died on track, with a further 2203 injured.
