Hounded to death by pack of trendy lefties, by Miranda Devine.
HERE we go. Yet another kneejerk “compassionate” response to a campaign by animal activists, as prosecuted by the ABC. This time it’s the greyhound industry in NSW for the chopping block.
With the authoritarian elitism that the modern Liberal party is making its hallmark, Premier Mike Baird has written off the livelihood and lifestyle of thousands of greyhound trainers, owners and breeders who love their dogs and take good care of them, not to mention the people who work at racetracks and all the greyhound aficionados who go to watch the doggies and bet over $1 billion every year.
It’s a culture war, and the powerless doggies people are the latest victims.
It’s hard to fathom the arrogance of city-dwellers killing off a quintessentially Australian pastime they don’t understand.
The decision is driven by the sensibilities of vegan GetUp! activists who loathe the culture greyhounds represent — of battlers in regional Australia hanging on to their dignity, whose main social interaction is a night at the doggies.
These men have been kicked in the teeth and marginalised by societal changes and “innovation”, which means job losses where they come from. They don’t have the choice in leisure pursuits available to the harbourside mansions set.
Baird and his cabinet signed the industry’s death warrant to signal their virtue. They thought they could get away with it because greyhound people are poor and powerless. …
For men like Ingram, greyhounds provide a place in a community with a purpose, where they feel valued. And all of it has been casually trashed by the Premier.
The government has no business in this affair.
It is a direct intrusion into the private sphere of human flourishing, as described by philosophers from Burke to Kirk. It’s not just the arbitrary eradication of an industry, but the destruction of a human community of friendships — social interactions passed down through generations, which can’t be replaced by compensation or ”industry assistance”.
