{"id":361474,"date":"2026-04-03T05:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/361474\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T05:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:56:09","slug":"greyhound-bosses-admit-battle-to-keep-dog-racing-alive-is-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/361474\/","title":{"rendered":"Greyhound bosses admit battle to keep dog racing alive is over"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is a good day for greyhounds,\u201d says Peters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis action wasn\u2019t taken lightly, but independent reviews in 2013, 2017 and 2021 provided clear evidence of serious animal welfare concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile improvements were made, those gains plateaued and injury\/death rates remained unacceptably high to the point the sport had lost its social licence. Action had to be taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

This decision reflects a wider global shift away from greyhound racing, with sport now surviving in only a small number of countries.<\/p>\n

Since New Zealand announced its intention to end greyhound racing, further jurisdictions, including Scotland, Wales and Tasmania, have signalled they will also end the sport, says Peters.<\/p>\n

While the ban or closure of an entire sport or industry is rare in New Zealand, Rennell says GRNZ are out of options.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think the decision is bulls***,\u201d Rennell told the Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now the amendment is passed we are out of options.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur attention will now have to move to helping our participants and working with the transition agency to get them adequate compensation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people who have bred dogs late in 2024 who are now going to only be able to race them for a few months before racing stops and their careers are over.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of time, that runway is very short.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rennell says greyhound racing will continue right up until the ban starts, with around 1700 dogs still racing in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to give those people who are invested in the industry the chance to win some money, to have an income, right up until we can\u2019t anymore,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the pathway to legal challenges appears over. It is a sad day for greyhound racing and we believe a warning to the two equine codes about their future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters previously stated after announcing his intent to ban greyhound racing that horse racing will not be next and that industry is not under threat.<\/p>\n

Peters said the end of racing is only one part of the Government\u2019s responsibility, with equal focus being placed on ensuring a safe, orderly and compassionate transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe passing of this bill enables the establishment of a transition agency to oversee the wind\u2011down of racing and the rehoming of dogs, and we are now moving into the formal set-up phase.\u201d<\/p>\n

The transition agency will be headed by the current members of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on greyhound racing, Heather Simpson (chairwoman), Murray Johnson and Dr Lindsay Burton, with a fourth member to be appointed later.<\/p>\n

Key elements of the transition agency\u2019s work include:<\/p>\n

Assistance for greyhound owners to ensure dogs receive a high standard of care while awaiting rehoming, including housing, training and behavioural support for the dogs.Partnerships with existing rehoming agencies, with practical support in place to expand their rehoming capacity and the number of dogs adopted.Retraining and redeployment support for industry workers, delivered in partnership with the Ministry of Social Development, to help affected workers move into new jobs.Mental health and wellbeing support services for people whose daily lives have been closely tied to greyhound racing. <\/p>\n

Peters rejected claims that those affected by the closure will be left without support, saying, \u201cThere has been a great deal of misinformation suggesting that people and dogs are being abandoned. That is simply wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill underpins a structured transition, with funding, agencies and support mechanisms in place. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not walking away from our responsibilities; we are meeting them head-on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald\u2019s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world\u2019s biggest horse racing carnivals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is a good day for greyhounds,\u201d says Peters. \u201cThis action wasn\u2019t taken lightly, but independent reviews in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37879,5831,5837,17940,9219,79635,185,809,111,43,139,69,1523,3512,6639,165,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-361474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-admit","9":"tag-alive","10":"tag-battle","11":"tag-bosses","12":"tag-dog","13":"tag-greyhound","14":"tag-is","15":"tag-keep","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-over","21":"tag-racing","22":"tag-survival","23":"tag-their","24":"tag-to"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}