“The hardest part is knowing that you can never save them all.”
In the wake of NSW premier Mike Baird's decision to shut down the state's greyhound racing industry, opponents of the ban have described those who bet on or train the dogs as "battlers".
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But volunteers who find homes for thousands of dogs facing euthanasia every year say they are doing it tough too and can't keep up with the numbers of greyhounds being bred and discarded by the industry.
“In NSW in the last 12 years … somewhere between 48,891 and 68,448 dogs were killed because they were considered too slow to pay their way or were unsuitable for racing,” an inquiry into the industry found.
On the state's Central Coast, Lorraine Ramsay has spent half her salary over the past three years footing the vet bills of the greyhounds she has rescued.
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Around 170 dogs have found homes through her Facebook group "Rescued greyhounds of the NSW Central Coast".
"I get the dogs directly from trainers and I get calls daily from vets where the dogs are taken to be euthanised for their blood," she told BuzzFeed News. "I work full-time and it costs me half my wages but I have some wonderful donations from the local pet shop of short-dated premium pet food."
Ramsay also runs a program with the dogs at the juvenile detention centre where she works.
"We teach the boys about the dogs and how to handle and take care of them."
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