Is It Time To Reconsider A Ban On Greyhound Racing In Sydney?

Greyhound Racing NSW’s income rose from $67 million to over 121 million dollars between 2017 and 2022. 

However, the industry has sparked controversies, with passionate advocates claiming that it should be banned over concerns for the welfare of racing greyhounds.

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In today’s episode of This Arvo in Sydney, we talked to the Greyhound Racing NSW CEO, Robert Macauley, to find out about the debate and the new safety initiatives to improve greyhound welfare.

In 2016, former Premier Mike Baird announced that greyhound racing would be banned from July 2017, but the ban was overturned a few months later.

According to Greyhound Racing NSW, catastrophic injury rates are at an “all-time low”, and the organisation has been designing tracks that are statistically valid to be safer.

We now benchmark all of our designs against existing state safety standards. We have minimum track standards for design,”

Mr Macauley said.

He said a trail of initiatives aimed at safer racing had started this month, including preferred box draws and double-arm lures. 

That’s why we established the trial to ensure that it is statistically valid.”

Greyhound Rescue, a facility operating south of Sydney, said they have 300 dogs on the waiting list to come into their care, but they have only received three applications to adopt.

Kylie Field, the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds, described the addition of double arms, lures, and preferred box draws on greyhounds as mere “window-dressing.”

It’s just letting the general public think that this industry really cares about the welfare of these dogs. In reality, it’s not going to stop dogs from dying on track.” 

Hosted by Sacha Barbour, This Arvo in Sydney is a 10 to 12 minute daily news podcast made just for Sydney! Listen now on the Listnr app.