On an international scale, the greyhound racing industry is stepping all over itself to (unintentionally) prove it should be shut down forever. The scandals are growing faster than a Fortune 500 CEO’s net worth.

The negative news out of Australia’s dog racing industry is fast-paced – to put it mildly. The Herald Sun reported today that a trainer has been accused of using amphetamines on two dogs.

Jenny Hunt has been suspended for 18 months.

And also today, two other trainers, this time at a Victorian track, were suspended for live baiting. 9News out of Australia reports reports 15 trainers and handlers at one facility were suspended in February.

On Tuesday, an article from TheDogs.com.au cropped up on the Pack News Wire. Yes, you guessed it, Greyhound Racing NSW has disqualified a trainer for 12 months.

And it gets worse Down Under. ABC.net reports Greyhound Racing Victoria basically looked the other way when it came to one of the training facilities at the heart of the five bailing scandal.

From the ABC report: The CEO of RSPCA Victoria, Dr Liz Walker, said that GRV’s failure to inform it of concerns at Tooradin demonstrated why self regulation in the industry had failed.

In Australia, individuals are being suspended on a regular basis. The insiders continue to act as if they are surprised by the news. Top-level trainers have been caught abusing animals and these folks are surprised. We’ve seen greyhound-racing abuse scandals involving abuse for decades around the world and these people are surprised?

The West Australian reported on May 8 that a “leading greyhound racing identity”  had been “stood down” over his recent conduct.

The Queensland Times ran an opinion piece on May 8 under the headline – “Clean up the mess and get on with the show.”

I would prefer – “Clean up the mess and ban the show,”

Paul Dolan wrote the column and tried to compare scandals in cycling and rugby and the fact that these sports have not been shut down. The difference he fails to get is animals are involved and abuse and deaths are regularly involved with dog racing.

Dogs die on the tracks and dogs are discarded that don’t make the grad. And we’re fining that the training practices are horrible.

This isn’t hard to understand and only those with dollar signs to gain fail to understand. The writer tries the tired old excuse of claiming animals are abused in other ways, like hunting. But you can’t excuse one evil by claiming there are other evils.

That is a horrible thought process that perpetuates more abuse. So others who abuse animals in horrible ways can just say, “we get to abuse animals because the greyhound racing industry abuses animals.”

We must continue to work to end all of the torturing of animals. No one should get a free pass out, based other people abusing animals.

There is no way we should let this industry police itself. – anywhere. Of course, the solution is to ban dog racing everywhere. How many more abuse mulligans do they get?

PACK MENTALITY BLOG: Compassion - teamed with Science and Logic