Live Baiting: Banned in Australia but Not Enforced

Please note, this video is very graphic. It shows rabbits, piglets and possums bound to racing lures, drug repeatedly around a course, mauled and sometimes torn in half while still alive in order to train greyhounds to run faster. What you see in the first five minutes goes on for 45 minutes so you may not wish to watch it in entirety.

I am aware that almost every large city in Australia has a greyhound racetrack. The sport retains a combination of breeders and trainers from backyard to professional. I was very pleased to see that a few organizations popped up in Australia several years ago to deal with greyhound adoption and advocacy. Even so, when you look at the number of greyhounds running compared to those being adopted, the killing must be astronomical.

Live baiting was once practiced in the United States and it should be noted that several years ago, the then president of the National Greyhound Association, the organization that regulates greyhound racing, was stopped by his local police with the back of his pick-up truck loaded with rabbits. His explanation was that his mother liked to eat rabbit. I wonder if his mother preferred deboned rabbit or the kind that had not been ripped and shredded. According to our sources out west, live baiting is still being practiced but there is no one to document it. These places are often very difficult to find and the code of silence that has long been a tradition in greyhound racing remains in force. Many things go on in the racing industry, whether it be Australia or the United States, that no one knows about. However, thanks to this amazing undercover work, the evidence in Australia is quite clear and overwhelming.

While a greyhound's natural instinct to chase, catch and destroy small prey can be traced back thousands of years as favored pets of the Egyptian pharaohs, the sad reality today is that these small animals are drug, mauled and torn apart with no way to escape or to defend themselves. This is cruel and inhumane on many levels and should not be tolerated. These acts of barbarism greatly diminish the country's credibility on the whole.

For those that want to help, you can express your concerns via written letter to the Australian Consulate here in the United States. The address is below:

The Embassy of Australia
1601 Massachusetts Ave
NW Washington DC
Tel: (202) 797-3000
Fax: (202) 797-3168