Four Corners ‘Making a Killing’ is set to air revelations of Live Baiting within the Greyhound Racing industry tonight. For those who are not aware of what the live baiting involves it is where a small animal is used to train a greyhound in a way where it is believed to improve the greyhounds performance often by giving it a ‘kill’. This is illegal and has been banned and has jail sentences among fines in place if people are caught carrying out these acts. GRV has confirmed the RSPCA is investigating the Tooradin Trial track.
The Greyhound Racing industry is an industry that has for years been given a bad name whether it be from the euthanasia of underperforming or injured greyhounds to things like these live baiting allegations. It is important to remember that this is a sport that is enjoyed by a lot of people from trainers to punters and that a few people within the industry just don’t want to play by the rules everyone else is playing by.
Having said that it is not hard to see the damage allegations like this will have for the industry just like the media circus that played out after the Melbourne Cup last year where 2 horses died. Unfortunately these things do happen from time to time but you can’t just go and shut down an entire industry like several animal rights groups have wanted to do for many years.
In Australia alone punters wager over $4 billion a year on Greyhound Racing. I am not saying that money is more important than a Greyhound being euthanased or a small animal being used as live bait but what I am saying is punish those responsible. Don’t try and damage an entire industry because a few ‘arseholes’ can’t do the right thing. After all if $4 billion a year is being wagered every year into this then it is obviously something that brings a lot of fun to peoples lives.
Here is a comment I saw on Twitter. I didn’t want to post the users name without their permission so I will just post what was said.
“Putting together animals, gambling & prize purses is a toxic mix…capable of turning men into monsters”#FourCorners tonight @AnimalsAus.
Capable of turning men into monsters? So there are no women trainers involved in this?
#Fourcorners #GreyhoundRacing #Livebaiting