By CASEY NEILL
GREYHOUND Racing Victoria has internally charged seven Tooradin trainers following the live baiting scandal.
GRV stewards on Friday laid 33 charges against seven of the 15 trainers who were suspended after RSPCA officers raided the Tooradin Trial Track in February.
Days after the raid, the ABC’s Four Corners program aired damning footage from various tracks of piglets, possums and rabbits being strapped to lures and ripped apart as live-bait to blood greyhounds.
The episode sent shockwaves through the greyhound industry that were felt across the country.
Christopher Connolly, Dennis Dean, Brett Mackie, Darren McDonald, Anthony Mills, Jon Roberts and Eric Sykes will answer “serious offences” under GRV Local Racing Rules and Greyhounds Australasia Rules.
GRV Chairman Ray Gunston said the independent Greyhound Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board (RADB) would hear the charges but was yet to set a timeframe.
“There has been a need to do a thorough and comprehensive investigation into all matters associated with the alleged activities at the Tooradin Trial Track, which is why the investigation has taken the time it has,” he said.
“Where persons are found to have been involved in this heinous activity, we are determined to ensure the strongest possible penalty is handed down.
“There is absolutely and categorically no place for people within this sport that are proven to have been involved in such barbaric and disgraceful activities that are not befitting of industry and community values.”
Steward investigations into the actions of a further eight suspended people are continuing.
