Injunction ‘last lifeline' for racing

Otago Daily Times

2 days ago

File photo: Stephen Jaquiery
A High Court interim injunction is the "last lifeline" left for the greyhound racing industry, a former trainer says.
Greyhound Racing New Zealand is seeking the injunction to stop the government's plan to end greyhound racing in New Zealand.
The hearing will be held in Wellington tomorrow.
In December last year, Racing Minister Winston Peters announced the government's 20-month plan to wind down the industry to enable the re-homing of racing dogs and to provide a transition period for people involved in the industry.
The first race of what could be New Zealand's last season took place last Wednesday.
There are six trainers in Southland and Otago and about 40 greyhounds, but not all the dogs race.
Southland Greyhound Racing secretary-manager Bronwyn Eade said an interim injunction could buy the industry some time.
If the injunction was successful it would stop the process of closing down the industry until a court hearing could be held.
"There's a little bit of hope."
It would also allow racing to continue beyond July next year when it was scheduled to stop which would extend the time trainers and owners could earn an income, Mrs Eade said.
When there was no more racing the owners would be left with the dogs.
"The government has said there won't be any compensation for the greyhound owners and trainers."
Throughout the country there were about 1500 dogs that would need to be re-homed, Mrs Eade said.
Every year about 670 dogs were re-homed at a cost of more than $8 million to Greyhound New Zealand.
"You take the racing away, how is that going to be funded?"
While the prospect of the sport ending was sad, people were more angry than anything else, she said.
Animal welfare was the reason given but the industry had made big improvements in the past eight years, Mrs Eade said.
It was hard to know why the government had decided the dogs were not well looked after when the opposite was true, she said.
What she found even more puzzling was why the government would continue to allow New Zealanders to bet on Australian greyhound races, which equated to about $48m gross revenue coming into the economy.
"There's a double standard and its hypocritical."
She said the Australian dogs were not better cared for because New Zealand dogs were the most regulated greyhounds she knew of anywhere in the world.
To add insult to injury, the government planned to requisition $15m of Greyhound New Zealand's money.
To take money from an incorporated society the government had to prove there was financial misconduct, insolvency or failure to submit returns, she said.
As there was no evidence of this the government would need to "fabricate a new law" to allow the money to be taken, Mrs Eade said.