Greyhounds Tasmania has rejected what it called “misleading and exaggerated claims” from animal welfare groups after a two-year-old greyhound fell at high speed during racing at Mowbray in Launceston on Thursday night.
Rojo Coco went down during the first race of the evening, forcing race one to be abandoned.
Tasracing broadcast the incident live but removed the replay from its platforms shortly after.
A Tasracing spokesperson said the dog fell during the race, resulting in “a small graze and a minor nosebleed.”
“He was attended to immediately by the on-track veterinarian,” the spokesperson said.
Tasracing said it had spoken to the trainer today and viewed footage of Rojo Coco “playing happily in his outdoor enclosure.”
Speaking to Pulse, a spokesperson for industry body Greyhounds Tasmania backed that assessment.
“Any suggestion that this incident was fatal or resulted in severe injury is completely false,” the spokesperson said.
“The race was abandoned as a standard precaution, proving that participant and animal safety is always our priority.”
Greyhounds Tasmania pointed to data showing 80% of reported injuries on Tasmanian tracks were classified as minor, with injury rates dropping more than 25% over five years to 2.34%.
On-track euthanasia rates remained among the lowest in Australia at 1.7 per 10,000 starters.
“Activist groups consistently ignore veterinary classifications to push a specific campaign agenda,” the spokesperson said.
Speaking to media this afternoon, government minister Bridget Archer said she had viewed the footage and believed last night’s incident was “outside of community expectations”, despite Tasracing assuring the public the dog was not seriously injured.
“It is not acceptable to continue to see these types of events in this industry,” she said.
Archer said “the community has overwhelmingly said they want to see this industry phased out,” and the government would continue engaging with colleagues across the political spectrum to secure passage of the phase-out legislation through the upper house.
Greens MLC Cassy O’Connor said the footage was “very confronting to watch” and called for the sport to be shut down.
“Every time one of these fine-boned, gentle dogs is unleashed on an unsafe track, they’re being put at risk,” she said.
O’Connor accused Tasracing of trying to hide evidence of injuries and deaths by pulling the video.
“It’s an attempt to conceal the grim truth of this industry from the Tasmanian people,” she said.
Standing alongside O’Connor, Anne Boxhall from the Welfare Alliance for Greyhounds said 19 deaths or serious injuries had already been recorded on Tasmanian tracks this year – with 18 in dogs under six.
“We can say quite categorically that greyhound racing is unacceptably and unavoidably cruel,” Boxhall said.
As the government looks to move forward with its plan to phase out greyhound racing, Labor leader Josh Willie said his party’s position had not changed.
“We support the three codes of racing, just like the Labor Party does in every other state,” he said.
Willie said animal welfare was important and there needed to be “continuous improvement” but accused the premier of betraying the industry after the election.
“You had the leader of our state making written commitments to people, to industries, to people’s livelihoods and then he changed his position after the election to retain power because he thought his job was more important than other people,” he said.
