Win a dog, watch it die: The greyhound industry’s latest stunt

Thursday, 31 July 2025

Virginia Fallon is a staff writer and columnist based in Wellington.

OPINION: The greyhound racing industry has launched a competition and the prize – I kid you not – is an actual racing greyhound.

To be precise it’s actually a quarter of a greyhound, a calculation which presents an unusual sort of imagery. Nonetheless “a 25% share” is how it’s put.

The dog’s name is From Now On and the lucky winners are promised “a real ownership experience”.

But wait! There’s more. Greyhound Racing NZ (GRNZ) also advises that “all costs will be covered” for the duration of the dog’s career.

It doesn’t say that its career is due to end next July along with the rest of the bloodsport, but then again, nothing in greyhound racing comes with guarantees – least of all time for its dogs.

Really, this is only a propaganda campaign poorly disguised as a prize draw, akin to buying a ticket for last week’s Lotto. Nevertheless it’s bold, I have to give them that.

Of course, like everything else to do with the greyhound industry, the competition is light on actual detail.

It doesn’t explain what actually constitutes a “real ownership experience” or exactly what “all costs will be covered” but that’s the bloodsport for ya – clarity has never been its strong suit.

So what is this “real ownership experience”?

Presumably it includes the thrill of watching your quarter-of-a-dog chase a mechanical lure around a dirt track while you hope she doesn’t break a leg or collapse mid-run.

From Now On, meanwhile, won a June 20 race in Addington, says the competition blurb: she has earned $2630 thus far in her career.

But should the worst happen, don’t worry – all costs will be covered. They’re rather cheap in the end, by the way.

And here’s the reality behind the marketing:

According to the Racing Integrity Board’s latest stats, 15 dogs have been euthanised so far this season, 90 have suffered injuries that prevent them from racing for three months or more, and over 100 others have sustained injuries serious enough to require stand-downs.

For those who died on the track, they didn’t get quiet, peaceful deaths but catastrophic, bloody injuries: snapped bones, heat exhaustion and heart failure – all sustained for the singular purpose of gambling.

On June 11, a dog named Homebush Sydney suffered a spiral fracture of her left femur during a race at Ascot Park in Southland. The injury was so severe she had to be euthanised.

Two days later, Homebush Feijoa collapsed and died at the lure at Addington Raceway in Christchurch. That same day, at Hatrick Raceway in Whanganui, Midnight Brockie suffered a catastrophic fracture to his right hock and tibia. He, too, was euthanised.

This is the real cost of the so-called “real ownership experience”. These animals are not slot cars or sports equipment. They are living, sentient beings bred, trained, and discarded by an industry that insists it loves its dogs, even as it routinely breaks them.

And when you strip away the spin, that’s what this competition really is: an opportunity to become willingly and publicly entangled with a bloodsport that’s determined to continue destroying the very animals it claims to celebrate.

Right now, of course, they’re dragging the Government through the courts in an effort to keep doing just that.

Anyway, to be in to win, all you need to do is fill out a form explaining why you oppose the upcoming ban that will stop From Now On – and every dog like her – from ever having to race again.

Entering the competition won’t cost you a thing – or at least, not money-wise.