The lucky ones

Updated

Thousands of dogs bred for the greyhound racing industry die each year once they're no good for the track. As the NSW Government overturns a ban on the sport there, the peak greyhound racing body in Victoria has acknowledged that over-breeding has made it impossible to rehome many dogs.

42 starts. $34,155 in prize money.

This is Snazzy — formerly Taper Jean Girl.

The friendly five-year-old has retired from the track after a two-year racing career.

But before becoming a family pet, she'll go behind bars as part of Greyhound Racing Victoria's official adoption program — GAP — which helps socialise dogs to give them a chance for a life outside racing.

At Dhurrungile Prison, a minimum security corrections facility south-west of Shepparton, she's being cared for by inmates John and Daniel.

Over the past year they've helped prepare about 50 greyhounds — both former race dogs and those that were never good enough — for their forever homes.

"Most of them have come straight from kennels. They haven't had human interaction and that. So when they come they're timid, scared, some of them," Daniel says.

"By the end of the four weeks, you see a complete turnaround where they want to come out and interact and be around people. It's rewarding to see that."

For John, their transformation has helped him realise that he can live a different life on the outside.

"It's made me really look at life, while I've been in jail and seen them come a long way. And it's changed me a lot," he says.

"Teaching the dogs really taught me other things that I didn't know; how to be a good friend, just be a good person in life."

As Snazzy and her fellow kennel mate, Jacqui, nuzzle into their handlers for loving pats, an unexpected burst of energy sends them both bolting across the yard.

Just moments later they're ready for a long afternoon nap.

That's why they're often dubbed 70-kilometre-per-hour couch potatoes.

"[They're] good pets, placid pets," Daniel says.

"It's funny, you'd think with greyhounds they'd be fit and all over the place. And they're good for a few minutes, or a few hundred metres and then they're very lazy."

Once Snazzy graduates from the program, she'll be issued with a green collar that allows her to be out in public without a muzzle, and matched with someone on a waiting list.

She's one of the lucky ones.

Many greyhounds have an expiry date once they're no longer useful to the industry.

There are no concrete figures on exactly how many dogs are euthanased.

But a 2015 motion inquiry by Victoria's Racing Integrity Commissioner, Sal Perna, revealed that up to 4,000 dogs are killed each year before their fifth birthday.

Animal justice advocates are continuing calls for a nationwide industry shutdown.

In Victoria, former vet Gavin Goble has been appointed as GRV's first general manager of animal welfare.



He admits that overbreeding has made it impossible to rehome hundreds of dogs that either aren't fast enough to race, or have reached the end of their career.

"One of the issues we face is that in prior years, we're talking about 2013, 2014, and into 2015, the industry bred more dogs than they really needed," he says.

Dr Goble says the number of dogs bred in Victoria has dropped from 6,000 a year to 4,000 over the past 12 months, a 33 per cent reduction. And he is confident that number will continue to drop.

This week NSW Premier Mike Baird has come under fire after an embarrassing back down on an industry ban.

The Government's decision to ban the industry came after a special commission of inquiry headed by retired judge Michael McHugh, which confirmed between 48,000 and 68,000 had been killed in NSW in the past 12 years.

Dr Goble acknowledges that animal welfare concerns need to be addressed, if the industry is to stay relevant into the future.

He says GRV is developing a new rehoming strategy to dramatically increase the number of dogs that will live out their lives in full.

In the last financial year, GRV says 812 dogs have been adopted through GAP and a further 1,000 dogs through non-GAP programs.

It aims to lift those numbers to 2,000 and 1,500 respectively.

That would mean finding homes for a total of 3,500 animals a year, more than the total number of dogs the RSPCA rehomes across Victoria.

GRV is unwilling to confirm euthanasia numbers, but acknowledges that attitudes need to shift to consider the whole lifecycle of greyhounds.

Dr Goble says with more adoption events, better marketing of the breed's qualities and a reduction in breeding numbers, he's confident that many more greyhounds will live longer lives.

"I'm not prepared to talk about euthanasia," Dr Goble says.

"We're here to talk about re-homing.

"GAP is a small part of our re-homing strategy. We're engaging with participants to drive home the accountability for them to re-home their dogs as well.

"The demand is high but as we increase our ability to supply the dogs, we want the demand to carry on increasing as well."

RSPCA Victoria is calling on the industry to be more transparent to gain the public's trust.

"There's no doubt that the number one thing the industry can do to address the cruelty and the high euthanasia rates is to stop the over-breeding," RSPCA Victoria chief executive Liz Walker says.

"And they have to provide the evidence that their initiatives around animal welfare are working, and that means birth to death registration."

It's no longer uncommon to see a greyhound milling about an inner city park or a suburban cafe, settling into a life after retirement.

If more of these dogs are to have a happy ending, Dr Walker says, all breeders and trainers need to be raising suitable companion animals from birth, giving them a greater chance to live a full life beyond their racing career.

Topics: animals, animal-welfare, melbourne-3000, dhurringile-3610, seymour-3660, vic

First posted