The risks faced by horses and greyhounds cannot conveniently be dealt with by an assertion that the owners ‘love their animals’.
The primary issue of concern relating to horses is what do we do with them when they are retired or fail to perform? They are large, expensive and difficult to maintain. And they live a long time.
Dog racing, on the other hand, is innately cruel. Regardless of what comforts the dogs may or may not enjoy when they return from the track, the very act of placing them in a confined space and demanding that they run in a circular field at speeds of up to 70 kph ensures that serious injury and sometimes death is unavoidable.
I repeat: the ‘sport’ of greyhound racing is innately cruel. It has been phased out in most countries. Why not here?
One cannot help but conclude that it’s “all about the revenue, and we’ll accept that from any quarter, thank you very much”.
Politicians argue that the sport appeals to working class folk who turn up at the pub in droves on a Saturday afternoon to place a punt; a pastime that has become a ‘tradition’ that needs to be maintained.
It isn’t! Only 1% of Tasmanians have ever attended a greyhound race. The vast majority have never placed a bet and would prefer the government to stop funding the ‘sport’.
Politicians fear becoming a target of a retaliatory campaign by monied interests. That’s the only explanation for why it continues.
– Nicholas Cohen, Margate
