First Published by By Nigel Gladstone in Sydney Morning Herald November 14, 2021 — 5.00am

Despite the state government spending $50 million over six years to address animal cruelty in the greyhound industry, there are competing claims on what’s been achieved, with more than 170 trainers found guilty in the past two years and one banned for life.

As the industry enjoys two years of record profits amid coronavirus lockdowns, there are concerns about “lenient” penalties for what activists, vets and stakeholders have labelled ongoing cruelty.

While track safety and animal rehoming policies appear to be making some progress, The Sun-Herald can reveal trainers have been found guilty of breaching the rules for offences include using animals on lures to bait dogs, failing to seek veterinary care for injured animals, betting on their own dogs to lose, failing to rehome greyhounds, drugging dogs and feeding them contaminated knackery meat.

As racing continued across the state during lockdown last year, the industry regulator – the Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission – wholly or partly suspended sentences in 47 cases where trainers were proven to have broken the rules. So far, this year 27 trainers have had charges conditionally waived or allowed to be served concurrently.

Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) posted the “best financial performance in its history” in 2020, generating a $7 million profit buoyed by record turnover, and this year turnover increased again by more than $800 million to exceed $3 billion.

Greyhounds have become the fastest-growing gambling product in local sports betting, Greyhound Racing NSW CEO Tony Mestrov told The Sun-Herald, but he is concerned that penalties for animal cruelty may not be tough enough.

“We live with the sins of yesteryear,” Mr Mestrov said. “The industry deserved to be shut down and should have been [before he started in 2017].

“[But] we intend to pour money back in [and] do whatever it takes [to ensure the welfare of every dog].”

NSW Racing Minister Kevin Anderson told a parliamentary estimates hearing in October he had “zero tolerance” for animal cruelty and “people harming dogs should be banned and not allowed to participate in the industry”.

However, just one trainer has been banned for life in the past two years for animal cruelty offences after he was found guilty in court of criminal charges brought by the NSW Police.

Mr Anderson was asked about pin-firing, where a hot object is pressed into the leg of a greyhound to cause scar tissue around the tendons and ligaments of the leg to help heal injuries. It was banned in NSW in 1997.

“There is no room for people [who use this technique] in the industry,” Mr Anderson said.

However, the greyhound welfare commission found three trainers guilty of pin-firing in August but did not fine or suspend them. The sanction imposed was to ban the dogs from racing.

Mr Anderson said the commission took “appropriate actions against these individuals”. The owners are appealing the decisions.

In a statement the commission said it seeks to “maintain a level of consistency and will impose penalties for matters that are consistent with previous matters involving similar conduct”.

In October 2021, the commission issued the longest disqualification for baiting and luring offences ever on a trainer – two sentences of 10 years to be served concurrently – after finding two rabbit carcasses during a kennel inspection.

More than $14 million was spent to upgrade racetracks in the past three years to improve safety and animal welfare standards, partly funded by the NSW government’s $30 million Capital Grants Program. In June, this year, another $25 million was added.

New schemes to re-home and adopt former racing dogs have secured 1880 places this year and new ways to fund the treatment of injured greyhounds have been trialled, including covering the cost of vet care if a dog is seriously injured during a race.

Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) spokeswoman Dr Cristy Secombe said if the health and welfare of a Greyhound is compromised the AVA expects “severe” disciplinary action will be taken.

Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds national president Dennis Anderson said animal cruelty was being too lightly penalised and multiple penalties were often served concurrently.

“We’ve got concerns about the leniency of the penalties,” Mr Anderson said. “Refusing to provide veterinary treatment for a dog, for instance, should be a lifetime ban.”

Animal Liberation spokeswoman Lisa Ryan said “it’s never been worse” on tracks as trainers continue to be caught drugging their dogs.

“This is a huge waste of public money invested into safer tracks, yet more dogs are being injured and killed on tracks than before,” Ms Ryan said.

Figures show that deaths and injuries fell between 2019 and 2020 but since then increasing numbers of greyhounds have been euthanised or injured.

Mr Mestrov says raw injury numbers are meaningless because there were 1000 more races this year than last year.

“The number that matters, because it is the only number on which one can benchmark success or otherwise, is injuries as a ratio against starts,” Mr Mestrov said. “The injury and euthanasia rates in NSW have, in fact, halved.”

The commission said over the past three years deaths have fallen from 1.6 per thousand starts to 0.7 per thousand starts last year.

Mr Anderson disputed measuring injuries per starter, saying it’s designed to confuse the public by counting every greyhound every time it runs instead of simply looking at injuries as a percentage of greyhounds competing during a given period.