By Alyx Douglas
River the Greyhound with owner Francesca Pandolfino
With the New South Wales greyhound-racing ban set to come into effect next year, West Australian animal rescue organisations fear that local trainers will be dumping their current racers to import cheap NSW racing dogs into the state.
According to the Dec 1 2015 Parliamentary Hansard, Western Australia had a kill rate of 43.5% of its racing greyhounds in 2015, with more than 17,000 hounds killed nationwide.
To try combat this, various rescue organisations around the state have been set up to help rehabilitate and rehome ex-racing greyhounds.
Greyhound Angels Western Australia is one such organisation, with the sole aim of finding permanent homes for the large number of unwanted hounds in WA.
Daniel Alway, treasurer and liaison officer for Greyhound Angels WA, believes that due to the ban in NSW, greyhound trainers from WA will want to import cheap and successful NSW dogs.
This will ultimately result in trainers dumping their current underperforming dogs, adding to the already large and overwhelming number of greyhounds needing homes in WA.
“We are already short of foster carers. I have 15 dogs currently on the waitlist and I know that three to four of these will never make it out (of the racing industry) alive,” said Mr Alway.
Acknowledging that the NSW ban would result in the death of thousands of greyhounds, Mr Alway suggested that this was still a better outcome than the loss of greyhounds that would result from a continuation of greyhound racing in NSW.
“I’m happy with a horrible end instead of a never ending horror,” said Mr Alway.
Francesca Pandolfino, a greyhound owner and advocate, believes there is a big misconception about the nature of ex-racing greyhounds.
“They’re so easy to look after, everyone thinks they need a lot of exercise and time but they’re really just giant couch potatoes that love to cuddle,” said Ms Pandolfino.
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