Charlie Lamb is a 55 year old indigenous Australian who has no doubt greyhound racing has enriched his life.

‘When I was growing up in Trangie, western NSW, my dad had a couple of greyhounds but of five boys and four girls in my family, it was only me who liked the dogs,’ Lamb recalled.

‘Then I met Lisa Brown, a white girl whose father John Brown, was a successful trainer in the Newcastle area.

‘Lisa took me home to meet her folks and John must have thought “my daughter seems fond of this kid so I had better show him how to train greyhounds so he can make a living”. I had no education and no trade but became a trainer and with Lisa, whom I married, raced One Tree Hill, who became a champion.

‘Greyhound racing provides a platform for young people with little education to make something of themselves.

‘I have just spent $25,000 on state-of-the-art runs to give my greyhounds a better life; so the Baird government’s intention to ban the sport from next July will be devastating.’

Greyhound racing injects $335 million annually into New South Wales’ coffers but Tabcorp shares tumbled seven per cent, with $145 million wiped from its value, within 48 hours of the July 9 declaration the sport was to be outlawed.

Charlie Lamb

The ban came in the wake of Mr Justice McHugh’s 13 months long inquiry into the sport but interestingly, Victoria held a similar inquiry which was finalised after eight weeks. Authorities there imposed some life disqualifications and resumed racing after implementing stringent reforms. A statement from NSW Tabcorp that greyhound punters would simply switch to other codes is laughable.

Brad Canty, easily Australia’s biggest dogs punter, said: ‘I put $30,000 a week through NSW TAB but when corporate bookmakers are also included my turnover can reach six figures,’ Canty said.

‘If there is no greyhound racing I am certainly not going to start betting on the trots in Sweden!

‘Accordingly people are now closing their NSW Tabcorp accounts and transferring their betting activities to Victoria where greyhound racing is flourishing.

‘Victoria can therefore receive the appropriate taxation benefits.’

The McHugh inquiry was damning of the industry but merely suggested the government ‘consider’ a ban.

After the ABC’s Four Corners programme disclosed live-baiting practices the NSW Government-appointed GRNSW Board was sacked and reforms, including restricting breeding so there would be less ‘wastage’ were iintroduced.

Of 2,700 registered trainers in NSW, eight were found to have indulged in live-baiting after hidden cameras had been placed around numerous tracks over several months.

Banning will ruin the lives of thousands of decent people, many third and fourth generation greyhound folk from country towns.

Professor Percy Allan, AM, secretary to the NSW Treasury from 1986 to 1994 and once a GRNSW chairman, made a submission to the McHugh inquiry.

At the time he told me: ‘A ban would be elitist because while unwanted greyhounds have been euthanised there has been no concern about thousands of thoroughbreds meeting a similar fate every year.’ Professor Allan declared a ban would attack a working class sport while ignoring an identical problem within the higher profile, wealthier, racing codes.

Having written on greyhound racing from 1962 to 2012 for the Packer family’s Consolidate Press and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, I made submissions to the inquiry, pleading to be heard.

My entreaties, like those of many seeking to defend the industry, were ignored, while Animals Australia, RSPCA, the Greens and other associated anti-greyhound groups received an audience.

Following the ban announcement GRNSW placed on its website contact numbers for Lifeline and Beyond Blue for participants needing counselling.

Ron Bell, a committeeman of Newcastle’s The Gardens greyhounds, said: ‘I believe there will be suicides over this.

‘Livelihoods have been taken from innocent people. At our track alone there are 30 casual employees who will find it difficult to get jobs.’

Australian greyhound racing began in Sydney in 1927 and has since been an integral part of NSW’s social fabric. The Baird government’s decision has given no thought to the effect it will have on pensioners like Kevin Clunne and others who have taken up exercising greyhounds on the recommendation of their doctors.

Clunne, 84, began training greyhounds two years ago on the advice of his sons after becoming depressed over the death of his wife. ‘Having a greyhound to look after gave me a new lease of life,’ Clunne told me after his first dog, Syndicate, won at Wentworth Park in mid 2015.

Baird claims greyhounds unwanted by his ban will be adopted – but dozens of breeders have over 100 dogs, with Marty Hallinan having more than 300 greyhounds on his property near Orange.

The current scheme adopts a small percentage of ‘retirees’ but hundreds are retained as pets by their trainers. The irony of the assertion that a ban is all about greyhound welfare is that outlawing racing will consign most of the 6,800 – those currently registered in NSW – to an early death. That figure will spiral. Trainers now retaining as many as a dozen retired racers will no longer have an income so will be unable to afford such an indulgence.

The RSPCA euthanised 12.500 dogs and cats in 2015. It has a far busier 12 months ahead next year.

The post Death knell appeared first on The Spectator.

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