Visiting the Dapto race track on Thursday night to speak to officials, Mr Foley joined with Illawarra Labor MPs and opposition racing spokesman Michael Daley to condemn the plan, which will see the greyhound racing industry shut down by mid next year.

“The great sport of greyhound racing is a cultural institution in our country, the Dapto Dogs are internationally famous – they’ve put Dapto on the map,” he told the receptive crowd at Dapto Showground before the weekly dog races began.

“Yet the Premier… makes an announcement to outlaw an entire industry, a cultural institution, a way of life.”

Mr Baird’s announcement early this month came after a special commission of inquiry found overwhelming evidence of systemic animal cruelty, including the mass killing tens of thousands of greyhounds and live baiting.

Mr Foley said the ban was “despicable” and “criminalised” all involved due to “the sins of a few bad eggs”.

He said Labor planned to put a plan to parliament to allow the greyhound industry to continue to operate in NSW “subject to high standards of animal welfare”.

“What I know, as I get around the state speaking to people in the greyhound industry, is that this an industry of people whose lives everyday is defined by the love for their greyhounds.”

Mr Daley said the ban “reeks of North Shore snobbery, and is the biggest thumb in the eye to ordinary working class families you could possible conceive”.

“[Mr Baird] doesn’t know people like us, but worse, this decision says, he doesn’t want to know you – he doesn’t care,” the racing spokesman said.

Labor called on racing supporters to join a rally in Sydney to show support for the industry. Mr Foley also urged attendees to contact Illawarra Liberal MPs to demand “they stick up for regional communities”.

But Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra Gareth Ward is unlikely to support Labor’s call to fight the ban.

“The reality is that Labor members in this region are putting votes ahead of animal welfare and animal cruelty – and I think this is absolutely disgusting,” Mr Ward said. “With so many issues, this is what has got [Mr Foley] in his car and down the Princes Highway, to talk about the dishlickers? Are you for real? Today, the opposition have literally gone to the dogs.”

Mr Ward’s Labor counterpart, Keira MP and Illawarra spokesman Ryan Park said the Liberal MP should take time to meet with “the hardworking people here who take the time to care for their dogs”.

“And if this ban comes into place, I’m not sure if Gareth thinks all these dogs are going to go to some nice farm,” Mr Park said.

“They reality is, they’re not – they government is already preparing for a huge mass destruction of these dogs and, in many cases, these are men and women who would rather give food to their dogs than themselves.”

He said reform was needed, but was “a hundred per cent committed” to overturning the ban.

“There has to be change, there has to be reform – none of us are saying that’s not the case – but we can do that while still keeping the industry alive.”