The Queensland Greyhound Racing board is beneficiary of a fresh government, reluctant to take the strong decision of other states to stand boards aside as investigations take place into appalling animal rights abuse.

Racing Minister Bill Byrne was lumped with the issue of animal rights abuse during day one of his new position.

Welcome to the job, Mr Minister. But that was four weeks ago.

To the ministry's credit, four detectives were planted inside the industry to investigate. And they have, seemingly resulting from the weight of investigative numbers, stood down a further 23 trainers.

That means 36 trainers have been stood down in total, most of them who use the same track where the live bait scandal was uncovered.

We cannot assume each of these trainers is guilty of these horrendous allegations.

We can, however, hold those who govern the industry accountable for its actions – whether they knew about them or not. If trainers are stood aside, so too should those who regulate and oversee the state of the industry be.

• Explainer: The Racing Queensland Board (RQ) is an 'all codes board', comprised of five members. It is the control body for three codes of racing – thoroughbred, harness and greyhounds. Sitting under RQ are three separate code specific boards for each of the codes. The chairs of those code specific boards, plus two independent members, make up the all codes board.

While this is normally a matter of pragmatic process, these allegations are at the extreme end of animal cruelty. Police have discovered that such tasteless savagery has filtered through a considerable portion of the industry.

Other states have taken the hard option. Yet our authorities are left bumbling their way through a path of – as they see it – sensitivities, careful not to tarnish an entire industry due to a few bad eggs of the most rotten kind.

Suspend the board. It's the humane option, and one which the new government is either too green or too soft to enact.

An inquiry has been launched. It will take three months to complete. And the minister will perhaps argue that it is only fair to await the findings before taking action.

Now is the time to act. The board must be stood aside. Three months is simply an injustice.

There are 800 registered trainers in Queensland, and we can assume that not all are active. That means the number of trainers who have already been stood aside equates to at least 5 per cent of registered trainers in Queensland.

That figure is bound to be conservative. So at worst, at least one in 20 dogs – assuming the number of dogs to trainer evens itself out across the industry – has been involved with live baiting.

And that's at the beginning of ongoing police investigations.

What is rife? This is rife. Mr Byrne, do the right thing by the decent portion of the population and stand down the board, at least until investigations clear them of wrong-doing.

There will be those who argue the industry should be outlawed. This is not a feasible or reasonable outcome, at least not in the immediate future.

But it is everybody's duty to ensure the continuing day-to-day operations of dog racing are clean, and not tarnished by horrid claims of barbarism and inhumanity.

Even if the board didn't know live baiting was common practice, it is no excuse. They are appointed to govern. They are appointed to know.