Animal welfare groups have called on the Canberra community to adopt thousands of greyhounds likely to face euthanasia after the ACT government announced the industry will be banned.
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ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said on Thursday the industry had no future in Canberra and had turned a blind eye to animal cruelty for too long.
The decision was made after an 800-page NSW Special Commission into the industry that revealed between 48,891 and 68,448 dogs had been killed because they were considered too slow to pay their way or were unsuitable for racing.
The Canberra Greyhound Racing Club board members were scheduled to meet on Friday night to discuss the ban and have called for compensation from the ACT government.
Club chairman Ron Peck said there was only a dozen greyhound trainers in Canberra although there were many more in the surrounding towns of Sutton, Gunning, Yass and Murrumbateman.
"One bloke out at Gunning has about 240 dogs," he said. "Another on the other side of Goulburn has about 70. What are they supposed to do?
"Its alright for everyone else to tell them to do this, to do that, but this is very difficult for them. Should they just turn up to Parliament House and tie them up there?"
RSPCA chief executive Tammy Ven Dange said one NSW trainer handed over 12 of his greyhounds on Friday, less than 24 hours after the ban was announced by the government.
"They are already starting this process of dumping dogs and we are trying to get into a position where we can look after as many as possible," she said.
Ms Ven Dange said the RSPCA could not be blamed for dogs that would be killed by trainers or abandoned.
"Many of these dogs were going to be put down anyway, they really were," she said. "What we are trying to do is save as many of these gentle giants as possible.
"For people to assume that it is our responsibility to take care of these dogs, I'm sorry. We have not bred them, we have not hurt them and we have not created this industry."
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the government would consider providing compensation to the greyhound racing community but stood by his decision to ban racing.
"Clearly there's been a lot of attention to the fact that there's funding, ongoing funding, so we can certainly look to utilise what we would have otherwise provided, in terms of ongoing operational subsidy, to assist in transition," he said.
Ms Ven Dange, who has long opposed the government's $1 million in annual funding to the local racing industry, said there was no need for compensation in the ACT given the small community.
Mr Barr, speaking from New Zealand on the last day of a three-day tour, said he understood that would leave the handful of ACT trainers "very unhappy", but said the broader industry had been warned repeatedly.
"Let's be blunt here, it's not as if there haven't been previous warnings, and these issues have been canvassed and the benefit of the doubt has been given to the industry on more than one occasion," Mr Barr said.
"But I fully understand there are a lot of people who have never done anything wrong who will feel very unhappy."
