RSPCA SA is calling on the South Australian government to phase out greyhound racing, saying the industry has not fixed welfare problems that were laid bare by a 2023 inquiry and remain visible in the latest injury figures. The push comes as the sector heads toward a July 8, 2026 deadline to fully implement 87 recommendations from the Ashton Inquiry.
Dr Rebekah Eyers said more than two years on from the inquiry, the reforms had not solved the problems embedded in the sport. Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds collated race-day stewards’ reports showing 1,064 greyhounds were injured in South Australia last year, including 316 major injuries and five deaths. Between January and March 2026, another 259 injuries were recorded on South Australian tracks, a 16 per cent increase on the previous quarter.
The Ashton Inquiry was led in 2023 by former Victorian police commissioner Graham Ashton after an ABC report showed multiple greyhounds being abused on an Adelaide property. It produced 87 recommendations for change, including an independent inspector, governance reforms and government funding for a full-time RSPCA greyhound welfare officer. The report said there was an urgent need for the industry to reform if it was to meet contemporary community expectations, and that it would keep a social licence only if the changes were immediate and widespread.
The state government gave the greyhound racing industry two years in December 2023 to improve standards or face a complete ban. Eyers said that timetable had not delivered the change needed and argued the welfare problems were part of the industry’s operating model. She said good dog welfare for the whole of a dog’s life was impossible to achieve in greyhound racing, adding that hundreds of greyhounds are rejected from the industry every year at a young age and then are not tracked once they leave.
That concern was sharpened two weeks ago, when one greyhound was euthanised after sustaining serious injuries during a race in Mount Gambier. Eyers said the industry has no idea what happens to many dogs once they are no longer financially useful, saying it is unacceptable not to know whether they are alive or dead and buried somewhere in a hole. South Australia is now being measured against other jurisdictions, with greyhound racing banned outright in the ACT and Tasmania set to phase the sport out by 2029.
The argument now turns on whether South Australia will treat the Ashton Inquiry as a fix or a warning. With the July 8 deadline approaching and injury numbers still high, the pressure on the government is no longer about reforming the sport in theory. It is about whether the state believes greyhound racing can ever meet the standard it was told to reach, or whether the ban it once held out as a threat is the only answer left.
