WESTERN Sydney greyhound owner Todd Fear has told an inquiry into NSW greyhound racing he went about 20 times to a property where trainer Bruce Carr operated a popular “bullring” known for live baiting.
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Mr Rushton said “wastage” of healthy young greyhounds had more potential to shut down the greyhound racing industry than the highly publicised issue of live animal baiting.
The inquiry has heard other small animals such as kittens, piglets and possums have also been used.
“I expect evidence will be given this week that live baiting was seen as a traditional and necessary method of training young greyhounds”, Mr Rushton said.
Counsel assisting the Special Commission of Inquiry, Stephen Rushton, SC, said the industry was predicated on “the mass slaughter of healthy young dogs”.
“Why would it care if the animals which were surplus to industry needs be destroyed?”
Mr Rushton said most greyhounds bred in the industry are dead by the age of three and a half years when the average life expectancy of a greyhound is 10 to 12 years.
Mr Rushton: “And are you saying if it was policed the practice wouldn’t have happened?” It is illegal nationwide.
The inquiry’s commissioner, former High Court judge Michael McHugh, QC, will consider 30,000 pages of documents and 115 hours of video footage.
Rushton said the figures revealed in the document are “a bad indictment on the industry”, and even after these revelations have come to light, there still remains a “real industry resistance to any form of breeding restriction”. Internal reports from governing bodies representing greyhound racing show that these practices were well-known by regulators, but nothing was done until now.
“GRNSW has been a failure”, he said.
According to Animals Australia, Australia is one of eight remaining countries in the world with a greyhound racing industry, and it is now banned in 39 states in America. “It has facilitated the concealment of matters which the industry would not want the public to know”.
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He took aim at GRNSW for admitting animal welfare had been treated by it as a “hygiene issue”.
