Banning greyhound racing is seen as a slippery slope by many who are worried the decision creates a precedent which may see other animal-based industries wound up. 

Between Cootamundra and Wallendbeen sits Anderson Racing Stables, a family-run business, owned by Rob and Trish Anderson who are worried about their family’s future.

“The industries are so similar and when you do see one go down you think, are we going to be targeted next?,” Mrs Anderson said.  

“You’re always worried. I never thought I’d see the day where they scrapped a whole industry.” 

Mrs Anderson doesn’t think the government will take any action on the horse racing industry yet, but remains nervous about the precedent created.

“Once they’ve done it to one … they’ll always look to do it to another.

“I don’t think they’ll move on the gallops for a long time but it’s always in your mind,” she said.

Mrs Anderson’s concern about the precedent is shared by Cootamundra MP Katrina Hodgkinson who outlined it as one of her reasons for crossing the floor and voting against the greyhound racing ban.

“I am concerned that the legislation that has now passed the New South Wales parliament to shut down the greyhound racing industry … could be used in the future as a precedent to shut down some other important food and agricultural industries,” Ms Hodgkinson said.

“We just don’t know what is going to be targeted next.” 

Like many greyhound trainers, horse racing is the Andersons’ sole source of income, without it, they would have to find work in a new industry.  

“It’s been our livelihood all our lives, we grew up with it. What else do we know what to do? It would be another two unemployed people,” Mrs Anderson said. 

The decision to ban greyhound racing shocked the Andersons because of how close to home it hit.

“You feel sorry for the young people who have built a business around it, they’re exactly like Rob and I,”

Off the back of the greyhound ban, Racing NSW, the horse racing regulatory body, has committed extra funding to their Horse Welfare Fund which aims to re-home every racehorse bred in NSW.

For the Andersons, it means a bit of extra paperwork when a horse leaves their stable but could be the difference between having a livelihood and not.  

“After all this, Racing NSW got on the front foot and put new horse welfare rules in place so that if the government does come we can fight it,” Mrs Anderson said. 

Currently, the Greyhound Transition Taskforce is creating an interim report to determine the logistics of the industry shutdown. 

The interim report is yet to be released but it is due by the end of September. It will be a tense wait for the greyhound industry and for the Andersons to see what the report recommends.