23 Oct 2025
The 40th on-track racing death of a greyhound this year has highlighted the dangerous design of Victorian racetracks, say animal welfare groups.
Stewards reports show that two-year-old Paw Ucolta collided with another dog on the home turn at Melbourne’s Sandown track on 20 October 2025. Suffering a foreleg fracture, he was euthanased by the on-track vet.
Paw Ucolta is the 40th greyhound death to occur at a Victorian race meeting this year. The state is by far the country’s deadliest, with Queensland the next-worst with 25 on-track deaths.
A further 33 greyhounds that suffered serious racing injuries in their Victorian races are now recorded as deceased. CPG has recorded a total of 2,500 injuries in Victorian races this year.
A total of 98 greyhounds have now been killed on Australia’s racetracks in 2025, detailed here , with more than 8,600 injured.
Quotes attributed to Steve Cook, VIC director, Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds:
“Victoria has by far the deadliest greyhound tracks in Australia. An alarming number of dogs are dying on and off the tracks in a taxpayer-funded industry.
“Four greyhounds have died at Sandown so far this year, with four dying there in the whole of 2024. It’s a typical racetrack, with dogs bunching together at turns as they run at up to 70kmh. Every race is a potential disaster.
“Eighty percent of the Victorian on-track catastrophic injuries occurred at track turns.
“There has to be an independent inquiry into the ongoing carnage in Victorian greyhound racing.
“The racing industry doesn’t seem to care about the high death toll, and neither does the state government. They care about the flow of wagering money to the gambling companies.”
Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds
CPG is a dedicated group of people across Australia who work together to inform the public
about the cruelties of greyhound racing – www.facebook.com/CoalitionForTheProtectionOfGreyhounds, www.greyhoundcoalition.com