A Four-Legged Lottery

How Do You Spell Nonsense and Rank Hypocrisy? – Peter Fitzsimons

Australia’s self appointed historian and national moraliser Peter Fitzsimons is off on another one of his wild ant-greyhound racing rants in today’s Sydney Morning Herald, but all it does is make him look silly. I guess that’s not too hard.

Fitzsimons basic positions are that:

The darling of the hand-wringing cafe latte set must live in a different world to you and me.

I know a lot of dog trainers, and without exception they are animal lovers who care deeply for their dogs, people who if money was short would feed their greyhound before they feed themselves. Sure there were some bad eggs in the basket a few years back, but those miscreants have been dealt with as they should be and banished from the game. Today greyhound racing has the highest welfare standards of any racing code, and perhaps even any sport, and equally importantly it is populated by people with a deep and abiding commitment to those standards and to best practice when it comes to ensuring their dogs and treated with kindness and care.

Like all fanatics everywhere, Peter FitzSimons and the anti-greyhound racing brigade don’t want to know anything about the facts. They prefer to roll out the old hoary chestnuts and beat their sanctimonious breasts.

Here are some of the comments from the mainly anonymous anti’s on social media that FitzSimons relies on to support his hatred of the sport and his doomed campaign to shut it down.

… this disgusting sport, which manufactures cruelty and misery for the animals and perpetuates the family crises of problem-gambling. 

Greyhound racing manufactures cruelty and misery does it? Where is the factory in which these things are being manufactured? How much does misery and cruelty sell for retail? What is the link between the sport and the perpetuation of these unidentified family crises caused by having a bet on the dogs? Where is the empirical evidence to demonstrate it? Where is any evidence at all?

Nowhere, that is where. This is just an emotive rant based on bullshit. If the activists really want to address the issue of family harm caused by compulsive gambling then I suggest they put down their chardonnays, pick up a sign, walk five metres out of the flash pub they are having salmon for lunch in and protest against the pokies and the obscene profits that they make that pay for keeping your lunches cheap.

This is a dying industry, plagued by scandals and obsolete in modern society. If it can’t financially support itself the Government should not be wasting taxpayer money on it.

This activist has obviously been living in a cave for the past half a decade. Greyhound racing is not a dying industry, far from it. The code is booming, and is the success story of racing. Since the small minority of miscreants that were live baiting were turfed out there haven’t been any scandals. None. And the dogs does financially support itself, many times over. The government money that all these haters are carrying on about is cash derived from wagering via the POC tax – the sport’s money – that is being used to build safer tracks to enhance welfare standards even further. Shouldn’t these fools be standing up and cheering, not huffing and puffing and wasting their breath trying to blow the house down?

… there is a HUGE problem with gambling and alcohol addiction in Australia and you are making the claim that this cruel ‘sport’ is important for communities?

This one is just stupid. There is no demonstrated link whatsoever between greyhound racing and alcoholism. None. Zero. Just like there is very little if any research or studies that show that the dogs are linked to gambling addictions. Problem gamblers gamble, and they will bet on two flies crawling up a wall. It is not the dogs that are the problem, it’s them. Trying to conflate these things and blame them on the dogs is just simple minded and moronic.

So is this.

This industry is riddled with brutal animal welfare practices including high rates of injury, suspected mass killing of healthy dogs, and widespread underreporting of deaths.

What a crock of ridiculous nonsense. Can someone please explain what these ‘brutal animal welfare practices’ are exactly. We know what the live baiters were doing, and not a soul condones it, but that was then and this is now and these grubs are long gone from the sport. These people can suspect mass killings all they like – some people believe in aliens too – but they have to prove it and they can’t, because it simply doesn’t happen. There is no widespread underreporting of deaths, or any non-reporting at all. Greyhounds are tracked from birth to death, and due to the post baiting safety reforms the injury rate is incredibly low, the lowest of any racing code.

There are no facts her, just distortions and deliberate spreading on untruths. These people are all just talking rubbish and making it up as they go because they hate our sport and want to shut it down. Well bully for the activists and their vegan mates. We don’t like them much either, and although we have no interest in shutting them down, we do all wish they’d shut up.

FitzSimons too.

Every word above is a pearly he says. I say he’s taken too many head knocks and should go and get a HIA.

The piece de resistance is this one.

Come on, Premier. We don’t know you well, but two things that stand out are your professed personal commitment to living a life of Christian kindness, while professionally pursuing tight economic management. You must know that greyhound racing doesn’t remotely fit with either. Personally putting taxpayer dollars to a sport notorious for its cruelty that can’t pay its own way? Seriously?

Putting taxpayer money into a sport ‘notorious for its cruelty that can’t pay its own way’ is a terrible thing according to the rugby loving former Wallaby forward who calls himself Fitz.

Oh yeah Peter. Really?

Then what about this then?

And this and this.

Rugby is a game that is based on grown adults grabbing each other and throwing their opponents violently to the ground.

The object of the game is to run through, or in the case of Jonah Lomu and Taniela Tupou, over your opponent to score a try.

Head injuries with horrific long term effects are common in the sport, as are broken bones, cuts and bleeding, or in some unfortunate cases severe disability or death.

There is no doubt that on a purist’s scale Rugby fits the definition of cruel, although like FitzSimons take on greyhound racing, I do not personally agree that it is.

Rugby in Australia is also a game that has had hundreds of millions of dollars flow through its coffers in recent years thanks to now-gone (thanks Raelene) lucrative broadcast and sponsorship deals.

Why does the Government financially support it?

Wouldn’t we be better off spending taxpayer’s money on saving the whales?

Please.

Hypocrisy is as hypocrisy does, and it is spelt like this.

Peter FitzSimons.

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