I've never been into dog racing or horse racing for that matter, but I think if a dog, I'd rather live for a couple of years, particularly with all the best, like young greyhounds get, than never have lived at all. I also know just a couple of greyhound owners, & the love they lavish on their dogs.

Typical these dictatorial do gooders, jump on horse racing & other sports trying for more dictatorial outcomes. Knowing nothing except that they are against anything with animals, they have no idea.

Yes we put them down sometimes. In fact I had to put down the last of my daughters show jumpers & dressage horses recently. He came to us as a 7 month old colt. stayed a colt & sired some lovely foals. He was also a brilliant show jumper, my eldest competed on for about 10 years.

Retired at 16, he was still my mate, & lived in a paddock beside the house. At 28 he developed a cancer, which defied treatment.

Have you ever tried to dig a hole big enough to bury a horse, when you can't see through the tears. Yes I put him down, & still miss his nicker, demanding a rub when ever I go out the back door.

Greens believe they love animals.

They wouldn't know the half of it.

Dear Is Mise,

Davao City, Mindanao, and the latest Philippines president was our neighbour back then. We knew him as Rudy. He was hardnosed already. Strange times but memorable.

Dear Hasbeen,

Horses certainly have a way of getting under your skin and when you have to put down one that has greeted you each morning it is pretty brutal. Still miss our mare after 4 years have gone by.

That being said I have a mate who works at the CSIRO who has told me that nearly a third of all race horses suffer from stress related ulceration of their stomachs. I have also had the misfortune of visiting a puppy farm about 5 years ago and that was a bloody disgrace.

I think Baird's words about a 'social contract' being broken were spot on. There was an expectation that the industry clean itself up when systemic abuse and cruelty was rife. It failed to do so. I have had dogs all my life and I'm sure there were those in the industry who would have been just as fond of theirs. But big money has a tendency to pollute and it has done just that. Just as I was happy to see regulation drive many puppy farmers out of business by the sounds of it greyhound racing had become toxic in NSW so i'm not shedding a tear for its demise.

Just to put this in perspective.

Two other big greyhound racing nations are Britain and the USA.

The figures for animals euthanised after retiring in Britain are about 1,000 and in the US is 2,000.

The annual toll of Greyhounds put down in NSW alone was in the order of 4,000 to 5,500 annually.

Absolutely unacceptable.

mixed feelings about this one. Pigs and cattle are bred to eat while some dogs are bred to race. Hopefully the treatment of animals is done decently but to treat them as humans is n ot right. Just look at how we butcher the unborn. Surely a much higher priority. Appears not.

Nice one Hasbeen.

Im pretty sure all working animals would suffer far more if left to themselves than when they are looked after and used by us.
How many wild horses break a leg and then suffer and eventually die?
Ill bet more than the expensive and well looked after racehorses. Who dont suffer if they have a catastrophic injury.
Same with the dogs. If I was a dog I would definitely prefer to be a greyhound. Even the so called "wastage" dogs live a better(short) life than many pets. Left alone all day and never exercised. Not to mention the regular instances of cruelty in the pet owning ranks. How many "pets" have mauled and even killed people in recent years? How many greyhounds have attacked someone? Greyhounds get top quality food, proper housing, good vet care, plenty of fun. They enjoy chasing and it can be done cleanly and without cruelty.

If their whole industry is to be shut down for the sins of a few and a problem of "wastage" then I look forward to bairds upcoming announcements on the closure and banning of the dairy industry, pretty much all horse related industries, egg and poultry production, live exports, halal AND kosher slaughtering, pet ownership to be restricted to fish and tamagotchis, and all hunting banned, especially using dogs to hunt and bring down prey.

Either your ethics apply to everything or they are not ethics at all just exploitation and opportunism.

Steele,

Was the dog a greyhound. If not, is a rabid dog just a prop to explain your feelings about me and everything I say?

You will note that I have politely answered your question about Switzerland your amazing suggestion that I would have food banned.