Greyhounds Australasia (GA) today launched a select tender process for the development of a scenario based model which industry leaders will use to make decisions that help sustain the Australian greyhound racing industry.
With animal welfare at the centre of all current deliberations, GA Chief Executive Scott Parker said an evidence based approach to decision making is a pre-requisite to successful reform and will help industry leaders to more confidently allocate resources and develop rule and policy settings that will help ensure industry sustainability at a national level.
''GA and its member controlling authorities are absolutely committed to ensuring this industry has a long and successful future.
''Our leaders accept that industry longevity and success is tied irrevocably with the treatment of our greyhounds. This means meeting our social or moral obligations as much as it means meeting our legal and financial obligations.
''A key challenge to the industry is avoiding excessive greyhound breeding and therefore stopping the unnecessary euthanasia of greyhounds.
''Industry leadership views overcoming this challenge as the most critical input into designing a future industry that regains community trust. The modelling will help identify the number of greyhounds required to be bred that meet both our moral obligations to the community and the commercial obligations of each jurisdiction,'' Mr Parker said.
The work will identify and model the movement of greyhounds across jurisdictions, the impact of national breeding trends in all racing codes, the broadcast of racing activity currently conducted as non-TAB racing, national wagering trends, participant financial viability and succession, the requirement and strategies for increasing average greyhound career starts, the opportunity for qualitative changes in relation to greyhound rearing and latent national demand for greyhound adoption.
The work will model relevant scenarios on owners, trainers, breeders and commercial partners, compare outcomes and document the financial impacts on each jurisdiction.
