A Perth tavern owner has been slammed on social media and sent death threats for using his business Facebook page to form a syndicate to buy and race a greyhound.

Wannanup-based The Cut Tavern Bar and Bistro owner Mark Simpson likened the syndicate to a social club whose members had a common interest — owning a racing greyhound.

However, hundreds of people on social media didn’t agree and nor does Greyhound Adoptions WA, the State’s biggest adoption agency for injured and retired racing greyhounds.

About lunchtime on Thursday, The Cut posted on its Facebook page a photo of a greyhound puppy and invited people to be part of a 60-person syndicate for $200 each. The goal was to raise $12,000 to buy the puppy and get it ready to race in 18 months time.

The post stated the puppy was the sister of a WA greyhound that had won $51,000 from 43 starts, including 10 wins.

Mr Simpson said people were entitled to have their opinion but was astounded by how nasty the comments got, including death threats. He agreed the industry had a bad name in the past but he believed it had cleaned up its act.

“We’ve been told to take it (the post) down but we shouldn’t have to take it down. The people buying a share aren’t doing anything wrong,” he said.

“I know they’ve got an opinion but they shouldn’t be ramming it down other people’s throats and being so nasty. It’s gone really overboard.”

Mr Simpson said all the shares had been sold and they planned to take ownership of the greyhound puppy in three weeks.

Some of the comments to the post included: “That’s disgusting that you think they’re (greyhounds) only good for profit”, “Rethink this promotion, it is low and pathetically cruel. You can drum up business is plenty of other ways”, “Pets not bets. Disgusting idea that animal abuse could be a marketing stunt, “Seriously disturbing. This reeks of greed and exploitation.”

Greyhound Adoptions WA chair Toni Donnelly said she thought seeking syndicate members through a business page to buy a greyhound was “totally unethical”.

“I think it’s playing on people’s emotions about a small pup and trying to get them into a gambling ring basically,” she said.

“Who knows what will happen to that pup.”

Mr Simpson said the dog would be bought by one of the shareholders who was already a racing greyhound owner and another member of the syndicate had already put their hand up to care for the dog after its racing career was over.

But Ms Donnelly said those explanations gave her no comfort for the welfare of the dog.

“The drawcard is to be a social club, ‘let’s have a bit of fun’, but it’s not fun when you realise what happens to many of the greyhounds,” she said.

For the past two years, GAWA has taken in 400 greyhounds a year, up to six a week.

Ms Donnelly said she did not support the industry as it currently operated and the association has called for an independent body to oversee the sport.

“There is hardly any transparency on how many dogs are destroyed every year,” she said.

“There are a lot of dogs put down that could be taken care of if owners were made to take full responsibility for their dogs ... it just doesn’t happen.”