RSPCA's Andrea Dawkins responds to announcement Tasmania's greyhound racing industry will end
I heard about it on Saturday evening and my response was, as for many animal welfare advocates in Tasmania and indeed around the country, it was tears. I could not believe it. I had to call the person who sent me the message to confirm it and it still took me a minute to actually let it sink in that it could be real because there's very, very few days like that as an animal welfare advocate. We don't get many wins and this is considered to be quite the victory because it took a lot to get either Labor or Liberal to break ranks on greyhound racing and I applaud that decision.
Ryk Goddard
It's not the end of greyhound racing if the greyhound racing industry can fund itself. Do you think it's likely to continue?
Andrea Dawkins
I don't think it is likely to continue. I mean, that's probably more of a question for Saul Eslake or an economist, but it appears to me from everything that I've read and also from the media release from Jeremy Rockliff on the weekend that it would be phased out.
Ryk Goddard
What support have they talked about providing both for the industry and also welfare for dogs as the industry ends so there isn't just a mass euthanasia? Do you have any details?
Andrea Dawkins
No, we don't have any details yet and that's what that parliamentary committee would be set up to investigate. Sean Carroll, the Commissioner for Racing Integrity, it would be very important to have him at that table and other people with significant positions of power, but of course we need to make sure it's a just transition, not just for animal welfare advocates and organisations who'd be rehoming the dogs, but also for participants in the industry. People like the RSPCA, those who work here and the broader animal welfare ecosystem, we've got a social mission. Our mission is not at all costs to get what we want. It's to wrap services around everybody who needs them, including the people in the industry as they exit. It's very, very important that the community understand that.
Ryk Goddard
Lachlan from Gilston Bay said greyhound racing in Tasmania is not an industrial complex like New South Wales. It's more like Darryl Kerrigan from the castle and he says overwhelming majority of people love their dogs.
Andrea Dawkins
That's correct. I completely agree. It's not that machine. It's still considered an industry by Tas Racing, but certainly my interaction with those owners and trainers as they're surrendering dogs to us, it's absolutely more like that mum and dad kind of backyard. But honestly, it's not fit for purpose for those dogs. They might love them, but it's a very different kind of version of animal welfare than the one that we hold as the highest and we expect those people to be some of the first. If there is a just transition and a package available to be able to avail themselves of those packages.
Ryk Goddard
Andrew Dawkins, CEO of RSPCA Tasmania and until recently a Launceston City Councillor. Do you have any reasons why you stepped down last week?
Andrea Dawkins
I just woke up on Thursday morning and I knew it was my time. I looked back on my call.
Ryk Goddard
Really? It was that sudden?
Andrea Dawkins
Look, it was. I'd been leading up to it for some time, knowing that I wasn't going to contest again and knowing that I wanted someone to take my place and give them a chance to embed themselves, to have an opportunity to push through that next election. But after 10 years and trying to hold all of those complex issues, everybody's concerns and the way that I needed to advocate for my community, as well as being the CEO of the RSPCA, when I actually knew that greyhounds were going to need me. In fact, when people contacted me and said, why have you stepped down? I said, I just woke up and knew that I needed to be here to help greyhounds. And then three days later, the news breaks. So maybe it was some sort of precognition.
Ryk Goddard
What would be your next target as the RSPCA?
Andrea Dawkins
Oh, gee, it's pretty early days for that. I mean, we do have an advocacy agenda. There's still pets in rentals. There's still some sitting in Parliament, as is the amendments to the Dog Control Act and Animal Welfare Act around the dog regulations, which would mean there'd be a cap on breeders. So there's still some really important work that got stuck with this last election. But we're still very concerned about shooting ducks in Ramsar wetlands and a number of other issues. So cat management is not under control in Tasmania. As an animal welfare advocate in this role, I will never have a sperm in it.
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