This is not as simple as you think or the program would like you to believe.
1. "Greyhound racing" is not using live baiting. A select number of criminals are, and they will be duly punished for their activities. If you want to look up some facts, and not just blindly swear by the Four Corners program, you would realise there have been 20 persons with allegations against them, out of an industry comprised of several THOUSAND participants, 30000+ to be exact. This issue is simply NOT widespread, as the ABC and 'Animal Welfare' investigators would like you to believe, it is a dirty tactic they have employed to turn the mainstream public against the code.
2. The NSW Government issued an official parliamentary inquiry into the code last year. The result of the inquiry found that greyhound racing is on the whole a very caring industry with minimal welfare issues, with those issues which exist (i.e as shown yesterday) to be heavily policed and investigated to be stamped out. Again, it is not widespread, rather, concentrated to a select few criminals who are unfortunately dragging the reputation of the industry through the dirt due to their terrible actions. All greyhound authorites have adapted a hard line stance against the action, and have put together task forces, etc to find these offenders, which Four Corners and the media like to not publicise, as it obviously works against their completely bias agenda to damage the reputation of the industry, and criminalise all it's participants, guilty and innocent, because the media prefers a story than the truth- hows that quote go- "don't let the truth get in the way of a good story". If you would like to read that report of the inquiry, go to page 93 of this link, which talks about the findings of the inquiry into welfare. http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/bec9a7d9384a2057ca257ca90002b4c0/$FILE/Greyhound%20Racing%20in%20New%20South%20Wales%20-%20First%20Report.pdf
3. The mere idea that greyhounds are not treated correctly by their trainers is just simply blasphemy to me. It is not even logical. How can you expect a greyhound to perform well in their races, if they are not cared for and properly nurtured? As a participant I reject the implication that the broader greyhound community is involved in any illegal activities, as the use of "widespread" would imply. I, and the large majority of participants have great amounts of respect and pride in their dogs, and additionally, if you know the breed, you would know that they love to race and work in their training, its just natural to them and they enjoy it.
And if you think horse racing is clean on welfare, let me ask you, what do you think happens to the majority of horses at the end of their careers? The dogs become pets.
I can't emphasis enough that these criminal behaviours are the activity of a small number of people- 20 alleged, who should and surely will feel the full brute of the law. It is simply not the attitude and behaviour of the large greyhound participant community who do the right thing, who will stand against these actions and should also not be targeted as a result. The task forces which have been created with faith will eliminate the dirt from the sport, although the image has sadly already been damaged, and I fear this will have severe impacts on the livelihood of the 99% of industry who do the right thing, with some sponsors already pulling out. I hope the wider participant community will stand united against those who seek to damage the reputation and use it as motivation to weed out those who have no regard for the law, and come out of this disaster stronger.
Also, here is GRNSW's (NSW's Greyhound Authority) official response to the airing of the program last night:
http://www.thedogs.com.au/NewsArticle.aspx?NewsId=6092, which I, as a participant, stand by and fully support. These small number of criminals are damaging the industry and making the large majority of innocent parties involved look bad who are doing the right thing. “Tonight’s Four Corners program did not reflect the actions of the majority involved in the sport and the tremendous progress the industry has made in the areas of animal welfare, integrity and eradicating animal cruelty in recent years,” he said.
“We need to stamp out live baiting once and for all. Not only is it illegal but it is sickening and we are disgusted with what we have witnessed on air."
These are just some of the points which I needed to put out there. There is much more I could go into if anyone wants, I have extensive knowledge of the industry, and more than happy to at least have my say in favour of those innocent participants (29980/30000) being victimised by the airing of the program and the action of a small minority of criminals.