NSW greyhound owners are being urged to submit "wastage" figures as the industry fights a state government decision to close it down.
About 150 people turned out at Sydney's Wentworth Park on Wednesday night for the first race meet since Premier Mike Baird announced plans to ban the sport from July next year.
Greyhound Breeders, Owners & Trainers Association operations manager Ellen Harris told attendees the GBOTA board was working with clubs to fight the decision and had engaged a legal team and political lobbyists.
"We're calling for those that can assist us in providing data around the wastage figures," she said.
"I think we all accept without doubt that those figures are overstated."
A key finding of the Special Commission of Inquiry that led to Mr Baird's announcement was that between 48,000 and 68,000 greyhounds had been slaughtered in the past 12 years because they were deemed "uncompetitive" - a process known as "wastage".
Ms Harris said Commissioner Michael McHugh, a former High Court judge, had admitted in his report that wastage data wasn't sufficiently robust to allow the commission to determine precise number of greyhounds destroyed each year in each state.
"Ultimately we are seeking actual (wastage) numbers from GRNSW (Greyhound Racing NSW) to put more hard evidence before the media and before politicians in our fight," Ms Harris told those gathered at Wentworth Park on Wednesday night.
She also urged attendees to write to their local MP and help obtain 10,000 signatures for a petition to put before parliament by the "critical date" of August 2 - when legislation to ban the industry is expected to be introduced.
Hobby trainer Dean Maniaci said the upper figure of 68,000 greyhounds killed was hugely inflated, largely because GRNSW only began taking statistics in 2015.
"(The figure includes) dogs that've been exported overseas, dogs that are sitting on the lounges, dogs that have been killed by snakebites (for example) or dogs that have died in accidents," he told AAP.
"Our regulatory body has never looked after us. It was placed there by the government and they've never taken any statistics."
Earlier on Wednesday federal Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce spoke out against the ban but conceded he hadn't read Mr McHugh's report, and doesn't intend to.
Mr Joyce said it was best to work with the industry to resolve problems rather than "hurting people".
"It's not the top end of town ... at the greyhound track, it's the bottom," he said.
"You've got to be a little bit careful jumping into a section of their lives. It's their life, it's their right."
