Greyhound track deaths 'lowest ever' but industry facing dogfight

But animal welfare advocates say the industry has "failed miserably".

In a state-wide advertising campaign to thank the estimated 12,000 people in mostly regional communities who participate in the sport, Greyhound Racing NSW has listed among its achievements over the past 12 months:

"We're immensely proud of how far our sport has come since almost being shut down," Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) chief executive officer Rob Macaulay said, referring to former premier Mike Baird's 2016 decision to reverse a planned ban on dog racing and to reform the industry instead.

"There is still a lot more to do," he said. "But we are making the difficult decisions to secure the long-term sustainability of our sport, particularly focusing on the highest standards of animal welfare."

Animal welfare advocates hold a much different view.

"Greyhound Racing NSW has failed miserably and greyhounds are still dying," Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds (CPG) NSW director Kylie Field said, pointing to the latest death of a dog during a race at Maitland in June and the dramatic closure of an adoption centre at Wyee in May.

In a recent statement CPG said a Maitland stewards' report showed that greyhound Lollipop Ed fell in race 10 on June 17, underwent a "post-race veterinary examination, which revealed it to have sustained a spinal fracture injury", and was euthanised.

The four-year-old dog was the first racing death officially recorded on the Maitland track this year and the ninth on tracks in NSW according to stewards' reports.

Ms Field described Maitland as "one of the tracks upgraded under the failed $30 million taxpayer-funded upgrade program".

The state government's greyhound racing capital grants program has distributed about $11.7 million since it began in 2018-19, with the aim of making tracks safer.

In a statement GRNSW said track safety and welfare had "never been at a higher standard, as catastrophic injury rates show".

"Every greyhound is important to us," it said. "Our constant investment in safe tracks and infrastructure leads to constant improvement."

Questioning GRNSW's promise of "no unnecessary euthanasia by 2023", CPG's Ms Field said the industry had "exploited the weakness of regulator Greyhound Welfare & Integrity Commission and Racing Minister David Harris".

"There has to be an independent inquiry into NSW greyhound racing," she said. "The so-called reforms have failed."

But a table of dog death data published online by CPG and circulated to media as "analysis of industry databases" has been criticised by the Greyhound Welfare & Integrity Commission.

"Publicly available stewards reports and reports provided by the commission's on-track veterinarians confirm that nine of the greyhounds named in the table were not found to have an injury at their last race," the commission said in a statement.

"Only four of the greyhounds named in the table (Whinge And Win, Raw Honey, Chit Chat and Purdy's Chance) were euthanised as a result of a racing injury sustained in their last race, not the 18 claimed."

While confirming that nine greyhounds had been euthanised or died at race meetings as a result of injury this year, the commission said its most recent quarterly injury report showed the rate of on-track euthanasia had declined.

Without naming CPG, chief commissioner Alby Taylor warned that "any public distribution of data which is factually incorrect is a distortion of the truth and is unacceptable".

"The commission is meticulous in its approach to its collection, analysis and public reporting of key industry data, including race injury data," he said.

Asked why its eTrac public search database, which is supposed to transparently monitor the location and welfare of greyhounds, was still showing the "status" of Lollipop Ed as "racing" after the dog's most recent "registered microchip scan" on June 17, the commission said "delays are rare in updating a greyhound's status" but a "death notification form" had to be completed before eTrac could be updated.

Greyhound racing was set to be banned in NSW from July 1, 2017, due to animal welfare concerns, but former Liberal premier Mr Baird overturned the decision and vowed to clean up the industry.