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Speaker 1: Racing. Minister Winston Peter's announced a ban on greyhound racing yesterday.

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Speaker 1: With the legislation passed under urgency. The racing dogs will

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Speaker 1: not be allowed to be euthanized, they will have to

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Speaker 1: be rehomed. Were joined now by Anya Dale, who's from

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Speaker 1: the SBCA, the Chief Scientific Officer.

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Speaker 2: Hello, Anya, Hello, good morning.

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Speaker 1: You're big chuffed.

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Speaker 2: We're absolutely delighted that Minister Peter's announced yesterday that the

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Speaker 2: racing industry will be banned in New Zealand by the

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Speaker 2: first of August twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: It's amazing the racing industry said they were blindsided. But

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Speaker 1: have you been advocating for this for a while.

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Speaker 2: Yes, ESPCIO has been advocating this for decades because the

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Speaker 2: sport is inherently dangerous and the injury and death rates

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Speaker 2: in greyhound racing just make it unsustainable. Just to give

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Speaker 2: you an example, in the last financial year alone on

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Speaker 2: track there were nine hundred injuries and thirteen deaths. So

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Speaker 2: it is just the levels are just too high to

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Speaker 2: make it acceptable and greyhound racing has lost its license

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Speaker 2: all right?

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Speaker 1: Was it surprising coming from mister racing himself, Winston Peters, Well, no.

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Speaker 2: We've been working with Minister Peters and the Department of

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Speaker 2: Internal Affairs on this for quite some time, and we

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Speaker 2: know that Minister Peters is very concerned about the welfare

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Speaker 2: of greyhounds, so we are absolutely thrilled that he made

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Speaker 2: this very challenging but right decision.

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Speaker 1: Will you now be moving on to saving the horses.

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Speaker 2: Well, now we're going to work with the continue to

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Speaker 2: work with our Greyhound rehome and coalition partners and the

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Speaker 2: Minister and the DIA in terms of working to rehome

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Speaker 2: all of the three thousand odd greyhounds in the industry,

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Speaker 2: because it's really important that all of these wonderful greyhounds

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Speaker 2: get put into loving family homes, which is exactly what

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Speaker 2: they deserve.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, are you avoided the question? But I don't mind.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about that rehoming because the dogs are not

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Speaker 1: allowed to be euthanized, so we have to find places.

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Speaker 1: Do you think there's going to be a struggle?

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Speaker 2: What is done?

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Speaker 1: I think it's three thousand dogs, three.

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Speaker 2: Thousand approximately, that's correct, And what has been done is

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Speaker 2: it's great that they now no longer be able to

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Speaker 2: be killed. It's set by a veterinarian and on legitimate

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Speaker 2: health and welfare reasons. So that is fantastic. And we

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Speaker 2: have reformed a rehoming coalition over two years ago and

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Speaker 2: have a strategy and an operational plan and the costings

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Speaker 2: right down to the individual dog, and a very multi

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Speaker 2: pronged approach in terms of how we're going to rehome

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Speaker 2: all of these dogs. So we are absolutely certain that

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Speaker 2: after learning from all our counterparts and other countries where

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Speaker 2: greyhound racing has also been shut down, we've learned all

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Speaker 2: of the good things to do, not to do, and

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Speaker 2: how to actually achieve this outcome. So we are sure

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Speaker 2: that we can work with the industry to achieve this outcome.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for your time today and I wish you

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Speaker 1: are the best of black and rehousing those dogs. I

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Speaker 1: know a dog. I know a greyhounds. My brother had one.

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Speaker 1: Will God rest soul. Funny little dog, big dog, actually

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Speaker 1: very tall dog, a little bit edgy. It's fair to say.

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Speaker 1: There's a quote in the paper today from Dawn Glover,

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Speaker 1: who owns rescue greyhounds. She says the dog's are fifty

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Speaker 1: percent elegant, fifty percent weird, and one hundred percent lazy,

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Speaker 1: and she likened them to the supermodels and the cats

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Speaker 1: of the dog world. Sounds like if you want one,

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Speaker 1: you can get one. For more from Early Edition with

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Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge, Listen live to news Talks it Be from

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Speaker 1: five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.