The racing day had ended. I thought the pain was over, but soon I learned a different fate. He reached his hands inside my cage and dragged me out once more. I winced at the pain; it hurts to walk, it hurts to stand. I’m thrown against the cold concrete wall; I knew I failed the test. He says I wasn’t fast enough as he reaches into his coat. I close my eyes and cower, I knew what came next. As I shake, my senses dull then I feel the barrel of a gun against my skull. Unfortunately, this is the fate that thousands of innocent greyhounds face daily in a popular yet cruelly vicious sport of greyhound racing. In October 2016, as many of you know, Premier Mike Baird retracted his ban on greyhound racing in NSW, stating that the greyhound industry …show more content…
The greyhound racing industry itself has admitted to up to 17000 healthy greyhounds killed annually, on average this is 40 dogs murdered every day. These dogs are being bred for no other purpose than to race and win, being seen as lottery tickets rather than the affectionate dogs they are. To find the winning “ticket” as it were, 40% of the greyhounds born into this industry are killed as a young pup, due to not being the fastest or strongest. The ones who are deemed the finest are used to race; however, they often don’t make it past their 5th birthday with their lives being cut short whilst racing or off the track by their owner. The life expectancy of these racing dogs is 7 years less than companion greyhounds are estimated to live for meaning they are being robbed of half their life. These dogs are not being humanly euthanised either, they are continuously suffering right till the end, those that are lucky will receive one bullet straight to the head, with the pain being over in a couple of minutes, others are drained of all of their blood before being euthansied. These practises are unacceptable and are costing the lives of thousands of innocent dogs. Greyhounds are often described as affectionate, gentle and intelligent; however, these dogs are not being given the chance to express these traits and are rather being abused and expended for their athletic