All sorts of rules and restrictions have been implemented on the disposal of unrequired dogs, which is fine up to a point. But the greyhound industry has yet to make a solid case that euthanasia is an acceptable and legal procedure, even though it is routine in other dog breeds, horses or in Council and RSPCA compounds.

I bring that up because the October 2017 inquiry in NZ claims that euthanasia is said to be unacceptably high, quoting a previous 2013 report, and as a result there is a need to reduce the numbers of greyhounds bred and imported.

Accordingly, NZGRA should continue to develop the means of making accurate projections of future requirements and by regulation ensure that the numbers of greyhound bred and/or imported do not exceed the requirements of the industry.

In other words, some version of Big Brother should decide how a commercial industry is run.

This invokes memories of silly GA projects to hire a consultant to tell each Australian state how many pups each should permit, how many races should be run and followed up with an inaccurate confidential memo to CEOs proposing that the industry should be cut by one third to combat alleged objections to euthanasia and live baiting.

If that was not enough, tri-state inquiries came up with similar solutions to alleged overbreeding ie bigger cutbacks.

Today, all of that has been consigned to the rubbish bin, overbreeding has become underbreeding, empty boxes proliferate, industry income is endangered and breeding numbers are in freefall due to a lack of confidence by investors.

The common thread is that three of these inquiries were conducted by lawyers and two (in Victoria) by public servants, none of whom demonstrated any ability to assess what was really going on in the breeding sector. Most had neither greyhound nor racing experience or skills. It showed.

The shame is that each Australian state authority blindly followed the nonsensical recommendations indicating that they misunderstood the situation, too. Subsequent attempts to recover lost ground have been equally futile.

So, beware any feedback from across the Tasman and keep making a case that that while euthanasia should be minimised, it is not avoidable entirely in respect to greyhounds or any other animals.

And the problem being is that the NZGRA have not really acted on that report from 2013 so therefore questions are being asked! The lack of accountability is always going to give ammunition to those that oppose the sport !