Revelations from Animal Liberation Tasmania that four greyhounds have been catastrophically injured during racing in the last week will be distressing to many. The painful fate of Fawn Shadow, Kylian, Where’s Lily and Sin Rap Comet, however, is the reality of this brutal industry.
Three of those gentle dogs were injured in the two days before Racing Minister, Felix Ellis and Tasracing chiefs fronted the GBE scrutiny committee this week.
How Minister Ellis and his racing cronies could sit at the Committee Table and claim the industry was “fair, humane and financially sustainable” is beyond us. The very night before, the greyhounds Where’s Lily and Sin Rap Comet were injured so badly they were stood down from racing for two months.
Where are these four greyhounds now? It's regularly the case that dogs just disappear from the records following a major track injury. The tracking and oversight of this profit-making industry’s greyhound 'assets' is abysmal.
The Greens have written to the Minister's Office and the Office of Racing Integrity asking for an urgent update on the status of all four greyhounds. This cruel industry must be held to account and can’t be allowed to get away with disappearing dogs.
Is this kind of inherent industry cruelty the sort of thing that makes Minister Ellis’ "blood boil"? Or is it simply the brutality he accepts of an industry he claims is part of the “Tasmanian way of life”.
Every month we see greyhounds race, collide, suffer catastrophic injuries and then disappear – feared dead. The industry and its failed regulation has turned a blind eye – and once again, ALT have done the job of government.
Felix Ellis, in GBE Estimates: ”…we want racing to be fair, humane and financially sustainable, and that's a critical part of it because it helps us to ensure it continues being a part of the way of life here in Tasmania. “
