The Queensland Government has moved to abolish all racing boards. Credit:Joe Armao The Alan MacSporran-led commission asked Racing Queensland to provide all the retirement forms for 2013 and 2014. Only 1462 forms were lodged but the commission believes the actual number of dogs retired in those years was closer to 8500, leaving thousands of greyhounds unaccounted for. The forms found after racing the "majority of ex-racing greyhounds are either euthanised, die as a result of accidents... or will simply go missing". Until 2014, Racing Queensland's dog retirement form allowed trainers to tick a box indicating they had put down a dog for "lack of ability".

"Wastage" The commission's report slammed the industry for an "unacceptable level of wastage" before puppies even made it into the industry. In the 11 years to 2013, the report found about 30 per cent of pups were never named, disappearing from the system before ever racing. "Addressing the problem of overbreeding, increasing the capability of the GAP and ensuring that greyhound pups are socialised will go some way towards reducing the level of wastage in the industry," Mr MacSporran wrote.

"But it should be understood that reconciling the numbers of greyhounds bred for racing and the numbers which, for whatever reason, are or become unsuitable for that purpose, will always be problematic. "The real question, is what, if any, level of wastage is acceptable for any modern society which has due regard for animal welfare." Pups born The level of deaths is fed into by the sheer number of greyhounds born every year, their long life expectancy and relatively short racing careers.

The Australian Veterinary Association told a New South Wales inquiry into greyhounds last year the "biggest problem with greyhound racing in Australia is that significantly more animals are born than will have a long, healthy career in racing leading to unacceptable wastage levels". Even finding out how many dogs were born every year proved a challenge for the inquiry but it eventually arrived at a set of figures using average pups per litter and litter numbers from Greyhounds Australasia. Adoption numbers The MacSporran report was critical of Racing Queensland's Greyhound Adoption Program (GAP), saying while it was a "commendable initiative" it was "wholly inadequate" to deal with the amount of dogs it needed to.

"The current rate of overbreeding is such that the GAP takes only a fraction of the retired dogs," Mr MacSporran wrote. "Other organisations do their utmost to assist in re-homing retired dogs but again, the sheer numbers mean that there are a great number that cannot be accommodated." The commission of of inquiry found most years the adoption family was only able to re-home less than 100 greyhounds.

Track deaths The inquiry also ran into trouble with the statistics surrounding animals put down after race-day injuries.

It stressed the importance of these figures being available to the public but noted they had not previously been released. Even with the figures eventually obtained, the report noted inaccuracies and inconsistencies because it was "standard practice" to report a dog injured in a race as "stood down for three months" rather than euthanased. Loading Recommendations

Several of the commission's recommendations look to address these issues, including moves to scrap a breeding incentive program and a suite of measures to allow tracking of individual greyhounds from birth to death.