edward rennell euthanasia comments

[the galah]

Theres a story on the nz herald website where edward rennell is interviewed by michael morrah.

The reporter specifically asks about mr rennells strategy of comparing,as much as he can, the number of greyhound racing injury stats,to other racing codes,specifically harness racing was mentioned.

Mr Rennells answer was  "theres a lot more transparency around our reporting. What i would say is the level of euthanasias in greyhound racing is lower than the racing euthanasia rates in the equine codes. Now i'm not saying their rates are unacceptable,but i dont believe ours is either."

Then he was asked,"what about injuries,are more horses injured than greyhounds" 

 mr rennell.....'i would argue a lot of them(horse) are not reported"

 

My take on watchiing that interview is,i get what hes saying,but surely the question he should be asking himself is,will such consistent public comments  advance in any way, his attempt to overturn the greyhound ban.

In my opinion,very obviously not. 

When winston peters announced the reasons for the closure of the greyhound after 1 august 2026,winston peters specifically referred to the unacceptable level of greyhound injuries.

Well someone needs to tell mr rennell,that saying the horse racing indusrrty is just as bad,if not worse,doesn't change whats been happening in the greyhound industry .

and someone needs to tell mr rennell that  whats been happening in the greyhound industry, is the basis for the closure decision.

i think,mr rennell is adopting a lose/lose strategy. Lose,for the greyhound industry and lose for the horse racing industry as the likes of safe and some of the public will form opinions based on rennells comments about horse racing.

Personally i find it bemusing that a former head of harness racing nz would think hes somehow helping his cause,by negatively impacting the public perception of the sport he used to be in charge of.

I had thought it had been a bit disappointing to see limited support from the horse racing codes to the plight of the greyhound participants and their dogs,but really,given mr rennells comments,why would they support him i suppose.

Actually ,i've previously started topics on the fate of many of the  horses when they are no longer in training.I know if you drive around the countryside,if you gave it some thought,you would note ,not just racehorses,but all horse numbers seem to be on the decline. I have previously commented on just how hard and unrealistic it is for someone to even find suitable reasonably priced grazing,for their horses.Rehoming places say ,anything aged over 12 they don't take. And i have commented on the feedback i have encountered from people who you approach about grazing a horse.It really is a major issue,that sadly most people just ignore and give little thought to.

As far as the greyounds go,i read last month New south wales had a bill proposing banning greyhound racing going through the government process. All depends on the politicians i suppose,they have just had a commission of inquiry into the sport,again.

Actually,i read recently that a prominent nsw greyhound person wasn't happy about how much they were spending on rehoming the nsw greyhounds in the usa. NSW,like NZ can't find enough homes for them so send them to be rehomed in the usa. The person from NSW had commented that greyhound NSW was spending about $6 million a year rehoming their dogs in the USA.

Edited 13 hours ago by the galah

[Brodie]

55 minutes ago, the galah said:

Theres a story on the nz herald website where edward rennell is interviewed by michael morrah.

The reporter specifically asks about mr rennells strategy of comparing,as much as he can, the number of greyhound racing injury stats,to other racing codes,specifically harness racing was mentioned.

Mr Rennells answer was  "theres a lot more transparency around our reporting. What i would say is the level of euthanasias in greyhound racing is lower than the racing euthanasia rates in the equine codes. Now i'm not saying their rates are unacceptable,but i dont believe ours is either."

Then he was asked,"what about injuries,are more horses injured than greyhounds" 

 mr rennell.....'i would argue a lot of them(horse) are not reported"

 

My take on watchiing that interview is,i get what hes saying,but surely the question he should be asking himself is,will such consistent public comments  advance in any way, his attempt to overturn the greyhound ban.

In my opinion,very obviously not. 

When winston peters announced the reasons for the closure of the greyhound after 1 august 2026,winston peters specifically referred to the unacceptable level of greyhound injuries.

Well someone needs to tell mr rennell,that saying the horse racing indusrrty is just as bad,if not worse,doesn't change whats been happening in the greyhound industry .

and someone needs to tell mr rennell that  whats been happening in the greyhound industry, is the basis for the closure decision.

i think,mr rennell is adopting a lose/lose strategy. Lose,for the greyhound industry and lose for the horse racing industry as the likes of safe and some of the public will form opinions based on rennells comments about horse racing.

Personally i find it bemusing that a former head of harness racing nz would think hes somehow helping his cause,by negatively impacting the public perception of the sport he used to be in charge of.

I had thought it had been a bit disappointing to see limited support from the horse racing codes to the plight of the greyhound participants and their dogs,but really,given mr rennells comments,why would they support him i suppose.

Actually ,i've previously started topics on the fate of many of the  horses when they are no longer in training.I know if you drive around the countryside,if you gave it some thought,you would note ,not just racehorses,but all horse numbers seem to be on the decline. I have previously commented on just how hard and unrealistic it is for someone to even find suitable reasonably priced grazing,for their horses.Rehoming places say ,anything aged over 12 they don't take. And i have commented on the feedback i have encountered from people who you approach about grazing a horse.It really is a major issue,that sadly most people just ignore and give little thought to.

As far as the greyounds go,i read last month New south wales had a bill proposing banning greyhound racing going through the government process. All depends on the politicians i suppose,they have just had a commission of inquiry into the sport,again.

Actually,i read recently that a prominent nsw greyhound person wasn't happy about how much they were spending on rehoming the nsw greyhounds in the usa. NSW,like NZ can't find enough homes for them so send them to be rehomed in the usa. The person from NSW had commented that greyhound NSW was spending about $6 million a year rehoming their dogs in the USA.

Personally do not think that there current CEO was and is much chop at both the posts he held at HRNZ and the Greyhounds.

Since Winnies statement that Greyhound racing was to be canned, where has he  been?

He has pretty much been absent! They needed someone that can actually stand up for what he is representing, and not someone easily walked over!

When at HRNZ he spoke out about wanting to have the whip banned, which was just a pathetically bad look for the industry.

Greyhounds will probably take it to Court, but are they going to leave it too late, and they need someone with more oomph!

The interview this morning showed that!

Edited 12 hours ago by Brodie

[Rangatira]

Edward needs to kick start his day.

[the galah]

3 hours ago, Brodie said:

Personally do not think that there current CEO was and is much chop at both the posts he held at HRNZ and the Greyhounds.

Since Winnies statement that Greyhound racing was to be canned, where has he  been?

He has pretty much been absent! They needed someone that can actually stand up for what he is representing, and not someone easily walked over!

When at HRNZ he spoke out about wanting to have the whip banned, which was just a pathetically bad look for the industry.

Greyhounds will probably take it to Court, but are they going to leave it too late, and they need someone with more oomph!

The interview this morning showed that!

fair enough.

I didn't see him that way.

I always thought he was approachable and more in touch with the cross section of harness racing participants that make up the industry..

Far more so than what i see is happening currently,in my opinion.

I had thought he had said whip use may be fazed out in time but supported the whip being used only 10 times in the last 400m. 

He gave the impression he fully supported  efforts to stop anyone,no matter how high profile,using performance enhancers.He deserved much credit for wanting honesty.Shame the trainers all got tipped off before the police raids regarding the blue magic.Thats another story,but its pathetic when people criticised officials for keeping things close to their chest when the inca raids happended.

I always found his move to head of greyhound racing was so ironic.

Quite sensibly,while at hrnz he was consistent about animal welfare and the need for the industry to have an appreciation of the publics perceptions as regards that.

Then ,there he was a couple of years ago,taking up the job as head at nz greyhound,leading an industry which i thought he should have recognised already appeared to have sealed their own fate through endless bad story after bad story around animal welfare.

the irony is,the man who clearly cared about animal welfare,is now downplaying animal welfare concerns in the industry he leads.He must have known that all the really bad animal welfare stories from the greyhound industry originated from the people who still dominate the sport. And he must have known about the stats around other factors like injuriies.

Anyways,theres an irony there. i wonder if he had thought about it. 

Just as theres an irony to point out that the racing indyustry he lead,has similar animal welfare issues,because he woould know,because he used to head up HRNZ. . Hes arguing he can clean up the greyhound industry.When he points to the harness industry as being proof they still have animal welfare issues,then doesn't he realise,it surely would be fair to ask,well if you didn't fix that when you were there,so why would anyone expect you to do any better at the greyhounds.

Edited 8 hours ago by the galah