QBE and Elders Insurance claim to have pulled sponsorship from WA greyhound racing after Mandurah track death
(Photograph: Matilda Duncan)
CONVERSATION #11: QBE & ELDERS INSURANCE, AUSTRALIA
QBE and Elders Insurance have ended their support of dog racing in Western Australia after at least 6 years of sponsorship following an enquiry from this publication.
The decision by the national insurance companies to pull sponsorship comes one week after a two-year-old dog named Moroccan Miss was killed at the Mandurah racetrack on May 7, after she suffered fractures while sprinting during a race and was humanely euthanised with the consent of her owner. It also comes after months of community pressure and advocacy from Australian greyhound protection advocacy group, the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds.
Elders Insurance continued to sponsor racing four times in the days following the death of Moroccan Miss, and last sponsored a race on May 15 at the Mandurah dog racetrack, south of Perth.
Elders Insurance is underwritten by QBE Insurance, Australia’s second largest insurance company. Both companies provide car, personal and business insurance, and in recent years QBE has had an annual income of over $500 million.
Paul Dekkers, a spokesperson for QBE Insurance, initially stated on May 12 that “QBE and Elders Insurance have no national links or associations with the greyhound racing industry. This sponsorship was established independently and at the initiative of a local Elders Insurance franchise.”
“QBE will work with the franchisee to review this sponsorship against the principles contained in our national sponsorship strategy.”
Yesterday, Dekkers provided an update, telling this publication he had been “informed that the [Elders] sponsorship with this organisation [Greyhounds Western Australia] has been ceased”.
The animal racing sponsorship appears to have been arranged initially by Elders Insurance Lake Grace franchisee Justin Wright, who has previously been involved with the organisation of Greyhounds Western Australia and is a racing greyhound owner, trainer, breeder, and racing dog syndicate manager.
As a trainer, Wright has regularly had his dogs be made to race at Mandurah, and last had one race on March 22 at the racetrack.
QBE Insurance did not respond to questions regarding the company’s policies relating to the sponsorship of events involving animals, writing: “Unfortunately, we are not in a position to share our strategy documents”.
QBE Insurance has previously engaged in charity partnerships with Assistance Dogs Australia and Taronga Zoo.
Dog racing records show that Elders Insurance began sponsoring dog races at the Mandurah greyhound racetrack as early as 2015, and have continued to regularly sponsor races, often on a twice-weekly basis under the name of “Elders Insurance Call Justin”, until this weekend.
Elders Insurance and QBE have been slow to make a decision on the dog racing sponsorship, after a spokesperson for Elders Insurance told the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds the company was reviewing it in early March.
“This is not a national Elders Insurance sponsorship,” they told the advocacy group on March 11. “We encourage our local agencies to support their communities through local sponsorship. We are now working very closely with our Distribution Manager in WA as well as the local agent to review this partnership. I can assure you we do take these matters seriously and will continue to review all our agent partnerships.”
Yet contacted for comment this morning, the owner of the Lake Grace franchise of Elders Insurance, Justin Wright, contradicted the assertions from QBE’s Head Office.
Wright confirmed that he was involved with greyhounds as a trainer, but did not confirm that the sponsorship of animal racing from his Elders franchise had been cancelled, saying only that “it’s in discussion at the moment”. Wright did not answer further questions.
A spokesperson for QBE Insurance is yet to clarify their position in light of Wright’s statement.
93 dogs have died so far this year at greyhound racetracks around Australia, including 3 deaths at Western Australian tracks.