Media release – Kristie Johnston, independent MHA for Clark, 16 March 2023
Minister Ogilvie: greyhound racing’s grim reaper
Madeleine Ogilvie has consistently made a hash of the racing portfolio, pretty much running on auto pilot while allowing the industry do as it pleases.
She hasn’t got a clue what’s going on.
And now she is stooping to a new low as arrangement between Tasracing and the Greyhound Adoption Program (GAP) are introduced which will sign the death warrant for potentially hundreds of innocent greyhounds.
Trainers have effectively been put in charge of the adoption program which creates a massive conflict of interest. This is what happens when you turn over animal rights and animal welfare to the racing industry.
For trainers and owners it is simple economics: if a dog isn’t racing and winning then it costs them money. It needs to be off the property as quickly as possible and the quickest means to achieve this end is to kill the dog.
Under new guidelines issued by Tasracing, trainers can make “difficult end-of-life decisions” and declare a dog “not suitable” for re-homing under GAP.
How convenient.
I call on the Minister to abandon her hands-off attitude and intervene to pull Tasracing back into line. Of course that won’t happen as we’ve seen time and time again that Ms Ogilvie just does what she’s told.
In that case, the Premier needs to act and replace her as racing minister, if he cares at all about animal welfare and preventing animal cruelty.
Media release – Andrew Wilkie MP, independent Member for Clark, 16 March 2023
CRUEL GREYHOUND RACING INDUSTRY MUST BE SHUT DOWN
“It’s scandalous that Tasracing is knowingly breeding more greyhounds than it needs and is killing some of the surplus, most likely because they can’t run fast enough”, Mr Wilkie said.
“Greyhounds are sentient beings that should be treated with kindness and will inevitably respond in kind. To see them being treated as a commodity and discarded like the weekly rubbish is an appalling blight on both the State Government and the industry. In my opinion the Minister is useless and the industry should be banned.
“Moreover the revelation that GAP is fostering dogs still requiring muzzles, presumably in order to get more dogs out the door, points to a program in crisis that will do whatever it takes to help prop up the systemically cruel greyhound racing industry.”
— statement expected —
