Speaker 1: Just a quick heads up.
Speaker 2: This episode contains some details of animal cruelty that some
Speaker 2: of you might find hard to listen to. If you
Speaker 2: want to skip today's episode, we'll be back again on
Speaker 2: Monday morning.
Speaker 3: Already, and this is the Daily. This is the Daily,
Speaker 3: This is the Daily.
Speaker 1: Ohs oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Friday,
Speaker 2: the twelfth of July.
Speaker 1: I'm Zara, I'm Harry.
Speaker 3: The New South Wales greyhound racing industry is being investigated
Speaker 3: after a former employee of the racing body detailed allegations
Speaker 3: of cover ups and abuse.
Speaker 4: You asked me if we're going to shut down the
Speaker 4: greyhound racing industry, you deserve a direct answer, and we're
Speaker 4: not going to shut it down.
Speaker 5: I think it's clear that they cannot be reformed. The
Speaker 5: message is that we're not buying the bullshit anymore.
Speaker 3: In today's deep dive, we'll look at what the report
Speaker 3: says about the way greyhounds are treated in the sport
Speaker 3: and what the New South Wales government plans to do next.
Speaker 3: But first, Sarah, what's making headlines.
Speaker 2: An investigation is underway after the bodies of a woman
Speaker 2: and a girl believed to be a mother and daughter
Speaker 2: were found in Sydney's northwest. Officers visited a home in
Speaker 2: the suburb of mass Field after a welfare concern was
Speaker 2: reported to police. New South Wales Police said a woman
Speaker 2: in her fifties and a teenager were found dead inside
Speaker 2: the house. The bodies are yet to be formally identified,
Speaker 2: but a crime scene has been established.
Speaker 3: The Northern Territories Police Minister has ruled out extending a
Speaker 3: snap curfew called in Alice Springs earlier this week. It
Speaker 3: followed a recent spike in violence in the region. The
Speaker 3: three day curfew, which applied to both children and adults,
Speaker 3: came to an end on Thursday. Northern Territory authorities deemed
Speaker 3: an extension unnecessary.
Speaker 2: Two in five working Australian women have experienced declining mental
Speaker 2: health over the past year. That's according to a new
Speaker 2: report from women's mental health advocacy group the Liptember Foundation.
Speaker 2: The findings follower survey of four and a half thousand Australians, depression,
Speaker 2: anxiety and body image issues were listed as the leading
Speaker 2: mental health issues facing working women.
Speaker 3: And the good news basketball star Jannis ante to Campo
Speaker 3: will become Greece's first ever black Olympic flag bearer ate
Speaker 3: to Campo, whose parents emigrated from Nigeria to Greece before
Speaker 3: he was born, booked Greece's place in the Paris Games
Speaker 3: after a victory against Croatia in this month's qualifiers. He
Speaker 3: became a Greek citizen in twenty thirteen, before he was
Speaker 3: drafted into the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, the team he led
Speaker 3: to a championship in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: Harry, I must confess that you have been around the
Speaker 2: office talking about this story this week, and that this
Speaker 2: is something I don't know a lot about. We're talking
Speaker 2: today about the greyhound industry. It's in the headlines, especially
Speaker 2: this week, but it's kind of been around for a
Speaker 2: little bit. Can you just give us a bit of
Speaker 2: an overview of the state of play when it comes
Speaker 2: to greyhound racing here in Australia.
Speaker 3: So I was actually quite surprised to learn that Australia
Speaker 3: is just one of seven countries that has greyhound racing.
Speaker 3: Not every country in the world has greyhounds. In some
Speaker 3: countries it is banned, and in some particular states it's banned.
Speaker 3: If you think of the US, for instance, some states
Speaker 3: have greyhound racing. Some of them have outlawed it, and
Speaker 3: in Australia we have it in every state and territory
Speaker 3: except the ACT. So greyhound racing is an industry that
Speaker 3: you could definitely say is fairly familiar with some controversies,
Speaker 3: and in particular, there have always been some concerns about
Speaker 3: animal welfare, about its association with the gambling industry, and
Speaker 3: some questions over whether racing bodies are being adequately regulated,
Speaker 3: that it's being overseen by an independent body and that
Speaker 3: it's following the rules.
Speaker 2: This might be a really stupid question, and I know
Speaker 2: I'm not allowed to say that. I'm here because we read.
Speaker 3: There's no silly questions, Sarah.
Speaker 2: When we talk about greyhound racing, we're talking about like
Speaker 2: what happens with horses in horse racing, but just with greyhounds, right, dogs? Okay,
Speaker 2: so we're talking about dog races.
Speaker 3: We're talking about dog race Okay.
Speaker 2: I feel like the first time I saw it in
Speaker 2: the news was I believe it was a four corners
Speaker 2: investigation that was done by the ABC. What was that
Speaker 2: investigation about? Was that kind of the first point at
Speaker 2: which all eyes were on the greyhound racing industry.
Speaker 3: It was definitely the biggest scandal around greyhound racing, especially
Speaker 3: in the last decade or so or the last twenty years.
Speaker 3: There's always been some murmurings about what has been happening
Speaker 3: in the industry, but I think that was one of
Speaker 3: these big moments where a lot of people's stomachs were
Speaker 3: churned by what they saw on TV. So this particular
Speaker 3: investigation by the ABC exposed what is known as live
Speaker 3: baiting in the industry, which is what So this is
Speaker 3: where and I do apologize because this is some pretty
Speaker 3: gruesome detail to go through, but it's basically where a
Speaker 3: live animal is used as bait for a greyhound to
Speaker 3: chase on the race track.
Speaker 2: Why would that be a thing? Why would they be
Speaker 2: doing that in the first instance, Well.
Speaker 3: It goes back to dogs and they're just pure animalistic instinct,
Speaker 3: which is to chase down prey. And these prey in
Speaker 3: this particular circumstance is completely defenseless. It's just hanging off
Speaker 3: a rod that's being word around the track, and so
Speaker 3: they're encouraged to race after it and they will mould
Speaker 3: that animal once they get to it. So that is
Speaker 3: against the rules. It's not allowed. This particular expos in
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen discovered that it was actually being used and
Speaker 3: it was actually quite widespread as well. It wasn't just
Speaker 3: one outlandish track, it was multiple tracks right up and
Speaker 3: down the country.
Speaker 2: Okay, And so that was exposed. You said back in
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen, what happened? Were there any changes to the
Speaker 2: industry if we're saying it was fairly widespread, did anything change?
Speaker 3: So there were definitely some major consequences. Few officials and
Speaker 3: trainers were dismissed and banned from ever competing in greyhound
Speaker 3: racing again or being involved in the industry, i should say.
Speaker 3: And there were a number of state reviews into the
Speaker 3: industry altogether. And this is where we come to New
Speaker 3: South Wales because at the time it was led by
Speaker 3: a coalition government under former Premier Mike Baird, who actually
Speaker 3: passed ben on greyhound racing, remember that twenty sixteen. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and it was a pretty big move at the time.
Speaker 3: It was the first state to do so.
Speaker 1: So was that in response to what had happened.
Speaker 3: There had been a special Commission of inquiry. So this
Speaker 3: big investigation, this big statewide review after the expos a
Speaker 3: and then the state decided to ban the industry altogether.
Speaker 3: The report he has produced is chilling, confronting.
Speaker 4: It's horrific.
Speaker 2: A ban was legislated here in New South Wales. But
Speaker 2: it's eight years later and we're talking about greyhound's in
Speaker 2: New South Wales again.
Speaker 1: What's happened during that time?
Speaker 3: The ban actually never came into place, so it had
Speaker 3: been legislated to start the following year, but within three
Speaker 3: months of that legislation passing, the government decided to overturn it.
Speaker 3: So today I can announce that the greyhound industry will
Speaker 3: be given that one last year.
Speaker 4: It'll be given an opportunity to reform as it needs to.
Speaker 3: Now. One of the areas of reform involved bringing in
Speaker 3: a new regulator, the Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Institute, and
Speaker 3: that was put in place to monitor animal welfare and
Speaker 3: to make sure the industry as a whole was complying
Speaker 3: with the new rules.
Speaker 2: Okay, so there was this new body that was set
Speaker 2: up to regulate the industry and to make sure that
Speaker 2: the rules were being followed here in New South Wales.
Speaker 2: Is that what has happened?
Speaker 3: As far as we knew, there was compliance, there was
Speaker 3: more reporting. There was an annual report that would come
Speaker 3: out every year and then we come to June this year.
Speaker 3: So there was a vet. His name was doctor Alex Britton.
Speaker 3: He worked as the top veterinarian at Greyhound Racing New
Speaker 3: South Wales and he left his post in June and
Speaker 3: when he quit he put together a handover document. Normally
Speaker 3: I would think a guide to what would the next
Speaker 3: person doing the role have to do? Can they log
Speaker 3: into the server and those kinds of things, But instead
Speaker 3: he wrote a fifty four page long analysis of what
Speaker 3: he thought were some areas of concern within the greyhound
Speaker 3: racing industry. So he included in this documents, emails, photos, spreadsheets,
Speaker 3: you name it. He had it basically backing up some
Speaker 3: of his concerns about animal welfare, about this alleged cover
Speaker 3: up that had been going on within the industry itself,
Speaker 3: and Doc Britton he was scathing and there's a quote
Speaker 3: I pulled out from it that I think sums up
Speaker 3: his views. He said, the Greyhound Racing Body has been
Speaker 3: quote misrepresenting and obfuscating the facts.
Speaker 2: Right, So some fairly severe language there. What exactly are
Speaker 2: his accusations?
Speaker 3: So he covered off many parts of the industry, But
Speaker 3: I think it's helpful to split his report into two
Speaker 3: key areas, so the first being dog injuries. Britain said
Speaker 3: current practices are putting dogs at higher risk of injury. So,
Speaker 3: for example, he pointed to the fact that some greyhound
Speaker 3: racing tracks are using hard clay. In places like the UK,
Speaker 3: it's pretty much all wet sand that the dogs are
Speaker 3: racing on and that's better for their pores and avoids
Speaker 3: serious injuries. He also said the way that the new
Speaker 3: South Wales Racing Body pays greyhound owners is also adding
Speaker 3: to the increased risk of dog injuries because as it
Speaker 3: stands at the moment, trainers given sixty dollars for every
Speaker 3: greyhound they bring to race day.
Speaker 2: So is the logic then that people are trying to
Speaker 2: enter more greyhounds into races because they'll be paid.
Speaker 3: More, exactly, So that's what Britain's saying. There's an incentive
Speaker 3: they're being goaded into bringing as many dogs as possible
Speaker 3: and that has led to an increased risk of injury.
Speaker 3: So that could be that there's just more of a
Speaker 3: chance with dog being hurt when they're racing, or trainers
Speaker 3: might be racing animals that just aren't fit to do so.
Speaker 2: This man's role was as a vet for greyhound racing
Speaker 2: New South Wales, so presumably he had a role in
Speaker 2: protecting these animals to some degree. What are the rules
Speaker 2: around the health of greyhounds? What was his role meant
Speaker 2: to be So.
Speaker 3: When it comes to Britain's role specifically as a vet,
Speaker 3: he noted that vets are there on race day under
Speaker 3: the new rules and they need to inspect the well
Speaker 3: being of the racing dogs. But he said that in
Speaker 3: some cases vets are only given forty five minutes to
Speaker 3: inspect as many as one hundred to one hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty dogs at a time, so he calculated that to
Speaker 3: be about thirty seconds per dog, and he said it
Speaker 3: makes it pretty much impossible for them to fully undergo
Speaker 3: a health assessment of each greyhound before they race. And
Speaker 3: also in New South Wales, greyhounds are allowed to race
Speaker 3: every second day and Britain points out that in Queensland
Speaker 3: and Western Australia the rules required dogs only race no
Speaker 3: more than twice a week to recover between those races.
Speaker 2: What else did he say about the conditions of these dogs.
Speaker 3: He included some photos of kennels in Western Sydney which
Speaker 3: are used to hold some of the dogs before the races,
Speaker 3: and these images showed blood smeared on the floor of
Speaker 3: some small kennels with what he said were rotten and
Speaker 3: rusted cages, so not exactly ideal conditions for the dogs,
Speaker 3: and he said that it was also causing some problems
Speaker 3: with their pores. They'd be scraping up against some of
Speaker 3: these cages, and it just wasn't a very suitable environment
Speaker 3: for a dog that's about to go out onto a
Speaker 3: racing track.
Speaker 2: And so part of this handover document, I don't even
Speaker 2: know if we can call it that, but part of
Speaker 2: this document is about the conditions and the welfare of
Speaker 2: the animals. But from what I understand, there was another
Speaker 2: part about the industry at large.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, So the second big part of his report
Speaker 3: looked at what's known as rehoming rates. So that's either
Speaker 3: when you adopt out a dog to go live with
Speaker 3: a family or to go live in a residential property,
Speaker 3: or if the dog stays on an owner's property itself,
Speaker 3: so basically where the dog goes to live for the
Speaker 3: rest of its life. Before a greyhound can be adopted, though,
Speaker 3: it needs to be des sext and this is something
Speaker 3: that Greyhound Racing New South Wales actually pays owners to
Speaker 3: do as an incentive so they cover that cost. And
Speaker 3: so what Alex Britton noted was he believed that the
Speaker 3: numbers of rehomed dogs as reported by Greyhound Racing New
Speaker 3: South Wales were grossly exaggerated. So for instance, he pointed
Speaker 3: to the figures in twenty twenty three, so the body
Speaker 3: had said that two two hundred dogs had been rehomed,
Speaker 3: but then he pointed out a gap because the regulator
Speaker 3: had said that one six hundred and fifty dogs had
Speaker 3: been rehomed in that year, so that's about a five
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty dog gap. And he alleges that this
Speaker 3: gap comes from the racing body counting to sex dogs
Speaker 3: as re home dogs. But that's not necessarily the case,
Speaker 3: because he says in reality owners will either keep the
Speaker 3: dogs or pay to send them to these boarding shelters
Speaker 3: where they live out. What he says is a miserable
Speaker 3: post racing lives in these industrial sized kennels. So think
Speaker 3: of those massive cages with not much room to move
Speaker 3: on big properties, and that's where all these greyhounds apparently
Speaker 3: are being sent to to live out the rest of
Speaker 3: their lives.
Speaker 2: So obviously this is just one individual who has alleged
Speaker 2: a number of wrongdoings on behalf of this industry. How
Speaker 2: has the racing body responded to all of this?
Speaker 3: The CEO of Greyhound Racing New South Wales, Rob McCauley,
Speaker 3: resigned on Tuesday after the media started reporting on the accusations.
Speaker 3: In his resignation statement, he defended the industry as a
Speaker 3: key source of income and jobs and prosperity for communities
Speaker 3: right across New South Wales and in a statement that
Speaker 3: was sent to the Daily Os, Greyhound Racing New South
Speaker 3: Wales said it takes quote any claims or concern related
Speaker 3: to animal welfare or the integrity of our rehoming programs
Speaker 3: very seriously and all seven members of the racing board
Speaker 3: have been given until today Friday to show cause to
Speaker 3: the Minister for Racing as to why they also shouldn't
Speaker 3: lose their jobs.
Speaker 1: Very strong kind of follow on effects.
Speaker 3: There as far as an organization being held responsible and accountable.
Speaker 3: This immediately absolutely.
Speaker 2: Right and so what happens to the industry, I mean,
Speaker 2: clearly there have been quite immediate consequences for Greyhound Racing
Speaker 2: New South Wales. But what happens to the industry at large?
Speaker 2: Do you think it'll be banned?
Speaker 3: So the Premier Chris Mins was asked his very question
Speaker 3: the other day about whether the industry at large would
Speaker 3: be banned, which is what former Premier Mike Bed tried
Speaker 3: to do back in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4: Look, we're not going to shut down the industry, but
Speaker 4: we do take this report seriously.
Speaker 3: The regulator also said it's going to launch an investigation,
Speaker 3: but the Greens and the Animal Justice Party say an
Speaker 3: inquiry won't be enough. I spoke with Upper House Greens
Speaker 3: MP Abigail Boyd who said she thinks these revelations could
Speaker 3: be a repeat of what that Four Corners episode back
Speaker 3: in twenty fifteen triggered.
Speaker 5: I'm hoping that people really begin to understand that this
Speaker 5: is a cruel, cruel industry that seeing thousands of dogs
Speaker 5: die and be injured and be left for dead in
Speaker 5: every single year.
Speaker 2: This doesn't feel like a party specific issue. We have
Speaker 2: had a labor government here respond But previously, as you said,
Speaker 2: Mike Bed, who was a coalition premier, tried to ban
Speaker 2: the industry.
Speaker 1: What have we heard from the coalition in New South Wales.
Speaker 3: A spokesperson for the Shadow Racing Minister Kevin Anderson told
Speaker 3: The Daily Odds that he is monitoring the situation closely.
Speaker 3: That didn't go into any further details, so there's plenty
Speaker 3: of developments to still come to light. It's a bit
Speaker 3: uncertain at the moment what's going to happen with the board.
Speaker 3: We're going to find out a bit more today, I believe,
Speaker 3: because that's the deadline that was given to the board
Speaker 3: to show cause why they shouldn't be let go and
Speaker 3: what is going to happen more broadly with greyhound racing
Speaker 3: in New South Wales.
Speaker 2: Harry, thanks so much for explaining that, and thank you
Speaker 2: for listening to another week of the Daily Ods. If
Speaker 2: you learn something, please send it to a friend. It
Speaker 2: is the way that people find out about our podcast
Speaker 2: and certainly about the Daily Ods more generally. We'll be
Speaker 2: back again on Monday morning, but have a fabulous weekend.
Speaker 3: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Runda
Speaker 3: Bungelung Kalgotin from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that
Speaker 3: this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadigol
Speaker 3: people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest rate
Speaker 3: island and nations. We pay our respects to the first
Speaker 3: peoples of these countries, both past and present.