BATHURST’S greyhound racing faithful will join the fight to keep their industry alive when they take to the streets of Sydney on Tuesday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Since Premier Mike Baird announced greyhound racing would be banned statewide from July 1, 2017, the industry has rallied.
Across the state more than 30,000 people have signed a petition to keep the industry alive, with many of those signatures collected at Bathurst’s greyhound track.
On Tuesday a bus will depart Orange and pick up supporters in Bathurst who will make the trip to Sydney for the rally.
Speaking trackside at Bathurst’s Kennerson Park on Monday, NSW Greyhound Breeders Owners and Trainers Association operations manager Ellen Harris said they are hopeful their voices will be heard by parliament.
“We only needed 10,000 signatures for it to be debated within parliament,” she said.
“They’ll [the petitions] be presended to [NSW Opposition and Labor leader] Luke Foley and [Shadow Minister for the Hunter] Sonia Hornery.”
Tuesday’s rally coincides with the same day legislation to ban the sport will be put before State Parliament.
The rally will be held at Hyde Park, with key industry figures to address the crowd.
"It’s a public demonstration against the imposed ban,” Ms Harris said of the petition and rally.
Ms Harris said the greyhound racing industry has already undertaken huge reforms since the ABC’s Four Corners program broke news of the live baiting practices conducted by some trainers.
“While we don’t shy away from the fact that the industry needs further reform, it has been reforming for 15 months,” she said.
Ms Harris said further government assistance and greater levels of power are needed for stewards to better police the industry.
NSW Greyhound Racing Industry Alliance head Brenton Scott, in the wake of the first of a series of legal challenges to stop the ban, said an industry being shut down for losing its ‘social licence’ was flimsy at best.
“No one has ever seen, touched, smelt, heard, tasted or sensed a social licence. No one has ever owned a social licence,” he said.
“A social licence has never been bought or sold, inherited, transferred, copied, faked or handed in …[yet] the Premier has announced his intention to ban an entire industry based on it ‘losing its social licence’.’”