Sickening footage of trainers using live animals to train dogs have sent shockwaves through the multi-million-dollar industry, sparking calls from animal welfare groups for the entire sport to be shut down.

This is a predictable over-reaction from the animal liberation movement, but certainly there are grounds for a thorough investigation into the sport which the Four Corners program convincingly showed was an unsavoury haven of cheating, illegal live baiting and out-dated, often brutal training methods.

The program played snippets from hundreds of hours of secret surveillance footage that showed greyhound trainers using live piglets, rabbits and possums being savaged by racing dogs in order to make them bloodthirsty and therefore give them a winning edge.

It goes without saying that this practice is utterly barbaric and cruel. It is also a very serious crime.

Some of the industry’s most well-known trainers and owners spoke on camera, declaring that live baiting was eliminated many years ago and the sport was 100 per cent clean. However, secret cameras captured them participating in the practice.

One leading trainer was secretly filmed instructing another man on how he should be smashing in a baby possum’s head so the live-baiting of its mother could begin.

It made for horrific viewing.

The greyhound industry in New South Wales is also under the gun, with a parliamentary inquiry being established to look at allegations of industry mismanagement, inappropriate distribution of TAB funds and widespread mistreatment of dogs.

In this state Greyhound Racing Victoria defended the sport, saying only a small minority were involved, but anyone who watched Four Corners will not be in the least bit convinced.

Greyhound racing has an urgent obligation to kick out the cowboys and prove it can clean up its act.