Animal Welfare – Three Greyhounds Dead in Three Days Underscores Need for Racing Ban

Source: Greyhound Protection League of New Zealand

Quick facts:

• Three greyhounds died in three days of racing in New Zealand this week (12–14 June).

• Fifteen greyhounds have died on racetracks so far in the 2024/25 season, with six weeks still remaining.

• An alarming spike in lure-collapse deaths: six dogs this season, including three from the McInerney kennels: a family with a long history of serious welfare breaches.

• Meanwhile GRNZ is facing a rehoming crisis of its own making: 672 dogs were awaiting adoption as of 1 November 2024, 349 of them still with trainers, not yet in the rehoming process. That number rose to 723 by 1 February 2025.

• Despite this, in October 2024, GRNZ reported plans to increase breeding.

• The Government has to hold firm, introduce legislation, and enforce the ban before more dogs pay with their lives.

Three greyhounds have died on New Zealand racetracks in just three days of racing: a brutal illustration of the industry’s ongoing welfare crisis and the urgent need for the forthcoming ban.

The three deaths occurred across three racetracks this week:

• Homebush Sydney was euthanised on Wednesday 12 June after suffering a catastrophic spiral fracture of the left femur during a race in Invercargill (source).

• Homebush Feijoa collapsed and died at the lure in Christchurch on Friday 13 June (source).
  

• Midnight Brockie, also racing on Friday, suffered a fractured right hock and tibia with complete displacement at Whanganui and was euthanised trackside (source).

“This is not reform. This is carnage,” said Emily Robertson, spokesperson for the Greyhound Protection League of New Zealand (GPLNZ). “Three dogs dead in three days of racing – and still this industry has the audacity to challenge the government’s decision to shut it down. It’s beyond belief.”

Midnight Brockie, just three years old, had raced 49 times and earned $45,470 in prize money before her death. She was the littermate of Brockie’s Rocket, another greyhound who collapsed and died at the lure in Manukau in September 2024 (source).

Greyhounds collapsing and dying at the end of their race – sometimes even after winning – is a particularly alarming new trend that has emerged over the past two seasons. In the 2023/24 racing season, three dogs died this way. So far in the 2024/25 season, that number has doubled, with six greyhounds collapsing and dying at the lure, including three from the Darfield, Canterbury kennels of trainer Jonathan McInerney.

The McInerney family has a long and troubling history in the greyhound racing industry. In 2023, John McInerney Sr was banned from the sport for 12 months by the Racing Integrity Board (RIB) after being found guilty of multiple serious animal welfare breaches, including failing to provide veterinary care and pain relief to a dog for three weeks. The dog was later diagnosed with cancer and euthanised (source).

In the same ruling, two dogs at his Manawatū satellite facility – operated by another son, Stephen McInerney – tested positive for methamphetamine and amphetamine.

John McInerney Sr has faced a raft of other RIB charges. The most serious in recent years include:

So far, 15 greyhounds have been killed on New Zealand racetracks since 1 August 2024, with six weeks of the racing season still to go. These figures reflect deaths alone, not the hundreds of serious injuries, including fractures, torn muscles, and other trauma that greyhounds continue to suffer on tracks every single week. GPLNZ warns that further deaths are likely unless urgent action is taken.

“These aren’t freak accidents. They’re the inevitable result of a system that treats dogs as disposable,” said Robertson. “Despite repeated reviews, recommendations, and reassurances of reform, dogs continue to suffer and die.”

In December 2024, the Government announced – with support from all political parties – that it would phase out greyhound racing in 20 months, after the industry was formally put on notice in September 2022. The ban decision followed multiple reviews, including the WHK Report (2013), the Hansen Report (2017), and the Robertson Review (2021), all of which raised serious concerns about animal welfare, high euthanasia and injury rates, data, and transparency in the industry.

GRNZ is now seeking a judicial review to challenge the ban, a move GPLNZ describes as “a desperate attempt that delays the inevitable and prolongs the suffering of greyhounds used and abused by this industry.”

“GRNZ should be focusing on ensuring no more dogs are harmed, winding down racing, and rehoming the dogs it claims to care about,” said Robertson. “The truth is, GRNZ is in the midst of a rehoming crisis of its own making – one that was already worsening even before the ban was announced.”

Figures from the Racing Integrity Board, the agency tasked with overseeing all three racing codes in New Zealand, show that as of 1 November 2024, 672 greyhounds were awaiting adoption, with 349 of them still housed with their trainers, not yet in rehoming centres or foster care (source).

“In their own annual report, GRNZ claimed to have rehomed 673 dogs in the 2023/24 season, meaning a full year’s worth of dogs were already sitting, waiting, and hoping for a home. That number rose to 723 by 1 February 2025 following the Government’s announcement of the ban,” Robertson said.

“And instead of urgently addressing this backlog, GRNZ is spending its time and resources in court trying to keep this inherently dangerous industry alive — and perversely had actually planned to increase breeding numbers.”

According to its own Animal Welfare Quarterly Progress Report (31 October 2024, p.12):

“…an uplift is required to maintain current racing levels and the industry’s overall contribution to the economy. Providing support and incentives to encourage and sustain the breeding industry will be a key focus for GRNZ in 2025 and beyond.”

GPLNZ is calling on the Government to hold firm, introduce legislation, and enforce the ban before more dogs pay with their lives.

Notes:

Greyhounds killed in the 2024/25 racing season on track are:

1. Midnight Brockie – 13 June – Whanganui – fractured right hock and tibia with complete displacement

2. Homebush Feijoa – 13 June – Addington – collapsed and died at the lure 

3. Homebush Sydney – 11 June – Invercargill- spiral fracture left femur – euthanasia post race 

4. Carrington Magic – 16 May – Whanganui  – open spiral fracture of left tibia fibula 

5. Big Time Hinda – 10 April – Cambridge – collapsed at lure and dead on arrival 

6. Know Motor – 8 March – Addington – fractured right radios ulna and died after surgery 

7. Homebush Honey – 13 March – Addington – collapsed and died at track trial 

8. Homebush Milo – 7 March – Addington – collapsed at lure and dead on arrival 

9. Highview Amber – 27 December- Whanganui – complete fractures of left and right radius ulnas

10. Call the tune – 13 December – Addington – cramp at lure, collapse in wash bay, transported to vet and euthanised due to an unmanageable hemorrhagic shock 

11. Diamond Roman – 10 December – Invercargill- compound fracture of right tibia fibula which was severely comminuted and displaced 

12. Homebush Shadow – Wednesday 27 November – Invercargill – complete fracture of the left radius ulna

13. What’s on – 18 October – Addington – incident at lure, severe neck pain – diagnosed with fractured vertebrae and due to severity of fracture was euthanased 

14. Brockie’s Rocket – 29 September – Manukau – collapsed and died at the lure (autopsy result – spontaneous tension pneumothorax)

15. Rocket Queen – 20 September 2024 – Addington – compound fracture to its radius/ulna.