2024-11-15
In just one race meeting at Gosford this week, a record 20 greyhounds were injured. There have been at least 228 greyhounds injured on the track in 2024 so far, around 5 per week.
Gosford was the first track upgraded under the NSW Government's $30 million ‘safe tracks program’, costing $762,570 in 2018. Then Minister for Racing Paul Toole said at the time that “these innovative improvements will make Gosford one of the safest tracks in Australia”.
According to GWIC Stewards’ Reports, NSW tracks make up one third of total on-track injuries across the country, and nearly half of all major injuries, in 2024. Greyhound Racing NSW has been under scrutiny for years for failing to ensure all tracks are compliant with their own minimum standards for racecourse design and construction, despite the racing body and its clubs being granted tens of millions of dollars by the former NSW Government to carry out capital grants safety upgrades.
Lines attributable to Abigail Boyd, Greens NSW Spokesperson for Animal Welfare and Spokesperson for the Central Coast:
“Gosford is supposed to be one of the safest tracks in Australia, and yet we’re still seeing shocking numbers of injuries. If the safest track in Australia can still end up with 20 injuries in a single event, it’s obvious it’s the act of racing itself that is dangerous.
“What more evidence do we need to demonstrate that the greyhound racing industry is incapable of reform? Even when hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money are spent on so-called ‘safety upgrades’, dogs are still being terribly injured and dying at a horrifying rate.
“The Minister for Racing is allowing this to happen in his own backyard, at the only track near his electorate on the Central Coast.
“Place this story in the context of the steady drumbeat of leaks that have so shocked and appalled the public in recent months, of greyhound abuse and neglect by industry participants and you have to ask at what point does this government finally say ‘enough is enough’?
“How many last chances will the NSW Government give this industry? Time and again the greyhound racing industry has proven itself incapable of reform, with zero regard for either greyhound welfare or accountability.
“I’m calling on Minister for Racing David Harris to finally put an end to the suffering of these gentle and affectionate companion animals that is occuring in his own backyard and around the state, and to shut this industry down for good.”