December 10, 2024 • 11 mins
Killing retired racing greyhounds is now banned - after Parliament's unanimously passed a law - in less than two hours.
The Bill - read under urgency - will protect nearly three-thousand dogs needing re-homing, as the Government shutters the industry.
A rapid-fire string of speeches included many addresses from MPs on their own pet dogs.
That includes Labour MP and former racing minister Kieran McAnulty.
He adopted a greyhound - and is urging Kiwis to do the same.
He says greyhounds are the most gentle, loving and caring animal anyone could imagine - and the best pet you could hope for.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Doncy Waldergrave
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
That'd be and it's a very good day to greyhound
to trainer Janine McCook. Afternoon, Jeanine, Yeah, good afternoon. It's
been a mad day for the entire industry. Dropped at
one o'clock, greyhound racing is to be banned in New Zealand.
I suppose first up, as someone who has been involved
(00:33):
in greyhound's their entire life and owner and administrator of
Christ Judge Greyhounds, what was your initial reaction to this release?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I just completely got it.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
To be fair, it came as it came as a
massive surprise. You were you found out exactly the same
time as the public. That doesn't seem fair and right.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
No, it'd be nice to be able to have all
little bit of time to process it ourselves and prepare
ourselves and a little bit of prime before it all
gets thrown thrown out to everybody.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
They've been reviewing this for a year or so, so
I'm presuming the possibility of this was always looming. It
was always in the background.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Oh, definitely, like they've been. They've been giving us a
lot of rules and regulations to adhere to and and
honestly we're probably the most you know, regulated animal in
New Zealand and like a kennel's, our facilities are well
above New Zealand standard. We've we've picked up the ball
(01:42):
and we've run with everything we possibly can, the rehoming
of our greyhounds, everything like we've we've come ahead leaps
and bounds. We've done everything we possibly could to save
to save this industry. Like I don't publicly train dogs anymore,
I still own them. It's been part of my life
(02:04):
for forty four years. It's it's we've done everything we
possibly can to save this and and keep it all
going for all the people that love it, all the
people that make their living from it. There's so many jobs,
there's so much turmoil ahead of these people, ahead of
all of us.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
What was the tipping point do you think for the
industry to be wound up? Any idea?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I don't know. I think I think people just believe
what they see and don't delve into what is actually happening.
You know the power of the media and Facebook, and
you know the people that keep keep trying to ban us,
you know, they get out there with their with their
(02:53):
strategies and things, and and everybody's got the right to
their opinion, but nobody was willing to come and look
at out, you know, and everything we've done, nothing positive
gets broadcast as good in as well as the negative.
And I think if they really look deep into what
we've done, that we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
They say in the report that it wasn't taken lightly.
The decision. Several reviews over the industry are considered. Program
of work over recent years to improve animal welfare has
been acknowledged. They acknowledge the work done by greyhound Racing
New Zealand, but believe even though progress has been made
(03:37):
when reducing dogs dying, for example, but they say, look,
it's too much of a persistent rate of injury, no
sign of really reducing, so we have to close it down.
So you don't think that's entirely in line.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I don't think so. I think we've made huge leaps
and bounds to all of that. Like yeah, like dogs
get hurt every day at the park, at the beach, everywhere,
not on the minicure, the services that we put our
dogs out on. You know, everything's been brought up to
(04:10):
so big a specifications and at home, at the at
the racetracks everywhere, like, yeah, it's just our rehoming rate,
like it's it's we're not it's against our rules to
euthanize healthy dogs. We have to rehome every one of
our dogs. Like there's no there's no industry that's regulated
(04:36):
like we are. And we've all come to the party
on it and to no avail.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Janine McCook joins this administrator and Greyhound's an owner of
greyhounds as well, suggesting that falling into line with general
global practice, that greyhound racing is on the outlet. That's
part of the reason for this. Why do you think
greyhound racing has carried on in its state for so
long when the rest of the world is turning against it?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Oh, I don't know. The love for it, the love
for the dog. Working with these majestic animals, they love it.
They love racing, they love getting out there and competing.
You know, it's taking all of that away, sage.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It's twenty months long enough to wind the industry up.
That's how long they've given the industry to. I suppose
like set it down. It's all over. It is that
long enough in your mind.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
No, not at all. There's some For an example, there
could be some good some females that have just been
put into part. So in nine weeks time they have
a litter of parts. We're not allowed to race their
parts until their fourteenth I think it's sixteen months old now.
So those those people have put the time the effort
(06:12):
into looking after that girl and putting her a pup,
and they're going to look after these parts and if
they're lucky, they might get a couple of months out
of racing.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
That's it's not fair on many levels. Many levels.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
You say, Jeanine that the dogs love to race, but
the industry as a whole, is it solely based on gambling?
Is it solely based on betting more than anything else.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Betting has a bit to do with the fact that
you know, you get industry funding so to speak, to
to go towards the racing stakes and so forth, that
you're raceful, But there's so much more to that. To people,
it is a way of life, it is their jobs,
(07:03):
it is their love. It's it's not just purely gambling.
And like you talk to many greyhound trainers, they're not
rich people. They're doing it because they love it. They
love the animal, they love the competition, they love the
family environment, you know, the comradeship, everything that goes with gracing.
(07:25):
It's not just we don't just go out there to
win as much money as we possibly can and get rich.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Without the tab there, though, would anyone engage in this?
This is what I mean if there was no end result,
if it wasn't there for the gambling industry, would it
exist by itself.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
At a smaller level. Probably, yes, you know, like it
always was. It's always been there. When I started off,
we had very little stake money as such, but there
was still a huge, huge interest and a lot of
people doing it.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
An unpopular story from the not so recent past is
to looking around claims of meth and fhetamine in animals.
Can you talk us through that.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I don't know anything about it. I'm not I'm not
privy to any information about drugs and so forth, Like
it doesn't cross my path. But all I know is
the myth andphetamine things that have been coming up and
in racing is purely on a fact of contamination. It's
never been proven that an animal has been given meth
(08:37):
infeta mean, it's all it's all come as a part
of an owner or somebody close to them. That's that's
been a user.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Jennine joins us. Jenning, you talked about euthanizing dogs. I'm
not quite sure what's had to happen now rehoming the
like as well. But in your own personal experience, do
you have to euthanize many animals throughout your time there?
Through various injuries and the.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Like, oh, severe ones? Yeah, a couple. But we're very lucky,
you know, like we have really good vets and things
now that can fix pretty much anything. So it's no
different to having a pet in the backyard as to
(09:23):
what we come across.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
How can the government help now with the transition twenty months?
Who said it's not long enough? Plainly, I think there's
around three thousand dogs that need to be looked after.
Over a thousand people employed. The governor have made this call.
What do they have to do now to help the
transition for yourself and everybody else?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Ah, well, I don't know, it's too early for me
to even comprehend what is happening, you know, like we've
had no notice, Well we've had notice, but We've had
no confirmation of this until right now with everybody else,
So it's too raw at the stage to even think
what the next stage is in that respect. But I'd
(10:08):
be hoping that there's something put in place to help
us rehome these beautiful dogs. Obviously they are bringing in
something along the lines of it's going to be illegal
to put any down or euthanize any and that's nothing
new to us anyway, because under our rules we can't
do that. So it's actually I take offense to them
(10:32):
bringing that in that regard because it's already there in
our rules.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
What now for the race tracks, there's only and the
economies or the local economies that do they get propped
up by this? I think there's only six tracks nationally.
Are they going to be affected much by this or
have they got other routes and other things they can
do with their facilities?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Well, I guess most of them are on moncre Code venue,
so the horse racing is still at most of them. Yeah,
and heare I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Jannine McCook. We can hear the anguish and the anxiety
in your voice. I really feel for you in the
entire industry decision has been made its process now and
you only found out when we did as well, So
thanks so much for joining us here on News Talks EDB.
Really appreciate your time and your words.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah nice. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
For more from sports talk, listen live to News Talks
EDB from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on
iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Doncy Waldergrave
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
That'd be and it's a very good day to greyhound
to trainer Janine McCook. Afternoon, Jeanine, Yeah, good afternoon. It's
been a mad day for the entire industry. Dropped at
one o'clock, greyhound racing is to be banned in New Zealand.
I suppose first up, as someone who has been involved
(00:33):
in greyhound's their entire life and owner and administrator of
Christ Judge Greyhounds, what was your initial reaction to this release?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I just completely got it.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
To be fair, it came as it came as a
massive surprise. You were you found out exactly the same
time as the public. That doesn't seem fair and right.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
No, it'd be nice to be able to have all
little bit of time to process it ourselves and prepare
ourselves and a little bit of prime before it all
gets thrown thrown out to everybody.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
They've been reviewing this for a year or so, so
I'm presuming the possibility of this was always looming. It
was always in the background.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Oh, definitely, like they've been. They've been giving us a
lot of rules and regulations to adhere to and and
honestly we're probably the most you know, regulated animal in
New Zealand and like a kennel's, our facilities are well
above New Zealand standard. We've we've picked up the ball
(01:42):
and we've run with everything we possibly can, the rehoming
of our greyhounds, everything like we've we've come ahead leaps
and bounds. We've done everything we possibly could to save
to save this industry. Like I don't publicly train dogs anymore,
I still own them. It's been part of my life
(02:04):
for forty four years. It's it's we've done everything we
possibly can to save this and and keep it all
going for all the people that love it, all the
people that make their living from it. There's so many jobs,
there's so much turmoil ahead of these people, ahead of
all of us.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
What was the tipping point do you think for the
industry to be wound up? Any idea?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I don't know. I think I think people just believe
what they see and don't delve into what is actually happening.
You know the power of the media and Facebook, and
you know the people that keep keep trying to ban us,
you know, they get out there with their with their
(02:53):
strategies and things, and and everybody's got the right to
their opinion, but nobody was willing to come and look
at out, you know, and everything we've done, nothing positive
gets broadcast as good in as well as the negative.
And I think if they really look deep into what
we've done, that we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
They say in the report that it wasn't taken lightly.
The decision. Several reviews over the industry are considered. Program
of work over recent years to improve animal welfare has
been acknowledged. They acknowledge the work done by greyhound Racing
New Zealand, but believe even though progress has been made
(03:37):
when reducing dogs dying, for example, but they say, look,
it's too much of a persistent rate of injury, no
sign of really reducing, so we have to close it down.
So you don't think that's entirely in line.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I don't think so. I think we've made huge leaps
and bounds to all of that. Like yeah, like dogs
get hurt every day at the park, at the beach, everywhere,
not on the minicure, the services that we put our
dogs out on. You know, everything's been brought up to
(04:10):
so big a specifications and at home, at the at
the racetracks everywhere, like, yeah, it's just our rehoming rate,
like it's it's we're not it's against our rules to
euthanize healthy dogs. We have to rehome every one of
our dogs. Like there's no there's no industry that's regulated
(04:36):
like we are. And we've all come to the party
on it and to no avail.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Janine McCook joins this administrator and Greyhound's an owner of
greyhounds as well, suggesting that falling into line with general
global practice, that greyhound racing is on the outlet. That's
part of the reason for this. Why do you think
greyhound racing has carried on in its state for so
long when the rest of the world is turning against it?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Oh, I don't know. The love for it, the love
for the dog. Working with these majestic animals, they love it.
They love racing, they love getting out there and competing.
You know, it's taking all of that away, sage.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It's twenty months long enough to wind the industry up.
That's how long they've given the industry to. I suppose
like set it down. It's all over. It is that
long enough in your mind.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
No, not at all. There's some For an example, there
could be some good some females that have just been
put into part. So in nine weeks time they have
a litter of parts. We're not allowed to race their
parts until their fourteenth I think it's sixteen months old now.
So those those people have put the time the effort
(06:12):
into looking after that girl and putting her a pup,
and they're going to look after these parts and if
they're lucky, they might get a couple of months out
of racing.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
That's it's not fair on many levels. Many levels.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
You say, Jeanine that the dogs love to race, but
the industry as a whole, is it solely based on gambling?
Is it solely based on betting more than anything else.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Betting has a bit to do with the fact that
you know, you get industry funding so to speak, to
to go towards the racing stakes and so forth, that
you're raceful, But there's so much more to that. To people,
it is a way of life, it is their jobs,
(07:03):
it is their love. It's it's not just purely gambling.
And like you talk to many greyhound trainers, they're not
rich people. They're doing it because they love it. They
love the animal, they love the competition, they love the
family environment, you know, the comradeship, everything that goes with gracing.
(07:25):
It's not just we don't just go out there to
win as much money as we possibly can and get rich.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Without the tab there, though, would anyone engage in this?
This is what I mean if there was no end result,
if it wasn't there for the gambling industry, would it
exist by itself.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
At a smaller level. Probably, yes, you know, like it
always was. It's always been there. When I started off,
we had very little stake money as such, but there
was still a huge, huge interest and a lot of
people doing it.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
An unpopular story from the not so recent past is
to looking around claims of meth and fhetamine in animals.
Can you talk us through that.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I don't know anything about it. I'm not I'm not
privy to any information about drugs and so forth, Like
it doesn't cross my path. But all I know is
the myth andphetamine things that have been coming up and
in racing is purely on a fact of contamination. It's
never been proven that an animal has been given meth
(08:37):
infeta mean, it's all it's all come as a part
of an owner or somebody close to them. That's that's
been a user.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Jennine joins us. Jenning, you talked about euthanizing dogs. I'm
not quite sure what's had to happen now rehoming the
like as well. But in your own personal experience, do
you have to euthanize many animals throughout your time there?
Through various injuries and the.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Like, oh, severe ones? Yeah, a couple. But we're very lucky,
you know, like we have really good vets and things
now that can fix pretty much anything. So it's no
different to having a pet in the backyard as to
(09:23):
what we come across.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
How can the government help now with the transition twenty months?
Who said it's not long enough? Plainly, I think there's
around three thousand dogs that need to be looked after.
Over a thousand people employed. The governor have made this call.
What do they have to do now to help the
transition for yourself and everybody else?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Ah, well, I don't know, it's too early for me
to even comprehend what is happening, you know, like we've
had no notice, Well we've had notice, but We've had
no confirmation of this until right now with everybody else,
So it's too raw at the stage to even think
what the next stage is in that respect. But I'd
(10:08):
be hoping that there's something put in place to help
us rehome these beautiful dogs. Obviously they are bringing in
something along the lines of it's going to be illegal
to put any down or euthanize any and that's nothing
new to us anyway, because under our rules we can't
do that. So it's actually I take offense to them
(10:32):
bringing that in that regard because it's already there in
our rules.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
What now for the race tracks, there's only and the
economies or the local economies that do they get propped
up by this? I think there's only six tracks nationally.
Are they going to be affected much by this or
have they got other routes and other things they can
do with their facilities?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Well, I guess most of them are on moncre Code venue,
so the horse racing is still at most of them. Yeah,
and heare I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Jannine McCook. We can hear the anguish and the anxiety
in your voice. I really feel for you in the
entire industry decision has been made its process now and
you only found out when we did as well, So
thanks so much for joining us here on News Talks EDB.
Really appreciate your time and your words.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah nice. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
For more from sports talk, listen live to News Talks
EDB from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on
iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.