NSW Government code abandons greyhound welfare

Dear all - the Minister's announcement today on the code fails greyhounds as expected. 

FYI-our news release out today follows below.

CPG will continue to fight for an end to greyhound suffering and we thank everybody for their support of the petition which we will now close.

News release

The NSW greyhound welfare code fails to meet public expectations by abandoning dogs now kennelled in poor conditions, said the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds (CPG) today.

Mr Dennis Anderson, CPG national president (no relation to Minister Kevin Anderson) said giving the racing industry 15 years to meet the  standard on kennelling was appalling.

"This has been extended from 10 years in the draft code, so this means squalid housing continues for the next decade and a half where conditions are under par. Would anyone who really loves their dogs subject them to this?" he said.

Mr Anderson said describing the code as best practice was ridiculous.

"The NSW code still allows surgical artificial insemination even though it's banned in the UK due to the pain it causes the female. It's ridiculous for the Minister to claim the code is a best practice standard when this is allowed," he said.

"Also, the Victorian greyhound welfare standard is definitely better because it has far more detail which makes enforcement easier."

He also said the final version of the NSW code has dramatically reduced the detail in the draft version about preparing  greyhounds for rehoming.

"This means some in the industry can continue to be lazy about preparing greyhounds for rehoming. This will continue to make life challenging for all the non-industry rescue groups that have to spend time and money making up for this failure on the part of owners and trainers," said Mr Anderson.

He said he was pleased to see that the Government put back in the minimum half hour daily exercise requirement for actively racing greyhounds.

"We pointed out this was missing in our public submission, as did others, so that's a small win. It was in the old code, but they left it out of the new draft code," he said.

CPG has five key demands for all state governments about greyhound reform (with a short video for social media feeds).

CPG is a dedicated group of people across Australia who work together to inform the public about the cruelties of greyhound raciing.

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