The inquiry also heard that live baiting was used in up to 90% of training, but just “the tip of the iceberg” of animal welfare concerns.
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“Between 74 per cent and 96 per cent of young healthy greyhounds will be put down at a few point on retirement or prior to”, counsel assisting the inquiry Stephen Rushton South Carolina said.
Up to nine in 10 greyhound trainers in NSW used live bait to blood their animals, an inquiry has heard.
The NSW greyhound racing industry will be under pressure again on Tuesday when an inquiry resumes probing the treatment of animals in the sport.
The inquiry is due to hand down his findings in March 2016.
Rushton said up to 17,000 dogs are killed annually and just 4% of the total population survive beyond 42 months.
Earlier in his opening address, Mr Rushton said: “Thousands and thousands of healthy young greyhounds are destroyed for no other reason than that they did not cut the mustard”. “You were told that it was – this is a witness’s words, not mine – “either the bunnies or the dogs”, Rushton told the inquiry. A GREYHOUND training “bullring” where dogs were baited with live rabbits was so popular trainers would have to wait in line to set their dogs loose, a court has heard. “.
Rushton said the figures revealed in the document are “a awful 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”.
Another experienced Sydney trainer, Majella Ferguson, lost a bid to have her name suppressed by the court after Commissioner Michael McHugh QC rejected her claim she has been threatened by an unnamed person about testifying. Internal reports from governing bodies representing greyhound racing show that these practices were well-known by regulators, but nothing was done until now.
Rushton lambasted Greyhound Racing NSW for treating animal welfare as a “hygiene issue”.
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Australia has one of the world’s largest greyhound racing industries and live baiting has been banned and criminalised for decades.
