On Oct. 15 (“Ordinance Ignored”), we reported that a Tucson
Greyhound Park veterinarian was routinely injecting dogs with anabolic
steroids, in direct violation of a new city ordinance forbidding the
practice.
Those steroids contain hormones that keep female greyhounds from
going into heat, but are also believed to cause genital deformities and
severe urinary-tract problems.
Still, more than a month after Dr. Joe Robinson defiantly admitted
administering the drug, it’s unclear what enforcement action has been
taken by South Tucson, where the track is located.
However, City Manager Enrique Serna reports that talks are ongoing
with Pima County Animal Care—which is contracted to handle the
small community’s animal issues—and with the Pima County
Attorney’s Office.
According to Serna, the legalities aren’t so clear-cut as they might
seem. “I’m hearing all kinds of different things legally,” he says. “I
haven’t even heard yet whether there’s a position by (John) Munger from
the track.”
Local attorney John Munger, who represents Tucson Greyhound Park, is
also a Republican gubernatorial candidate. He did not return phone
calls from the Tucson Weekly seeking comment. Nor were calls
returned by Robinson or track manager Tom Taylor.
“But the quick of it is that we have been following up,” Serna says.
“I believe we are well on our way to getting something resolved
here.”
Nor is Robinson the first Greyhound Park vet to engage in
questionable actions. Late last year, Tucson veterinarian Janet Forrer
and anti-greyhound-racing activist Susan Via filed a handful of
complaints with the Arizona State Veterinary Medical Examining Board.
Among other things, they alleged that racetrack doctors Paul Pullen and
Betty Menke had violated the Veterinary Practice Act by failing to log
medications given to the dogs. The board subsequently found both vets
guilty of unprofessional conduct.
Dr. Menke died of cancer in July. But the license of Dr. Pullen, who
claimed the medical logs had been stolen from his truck, was placed on
probation.
Pullen’s probation was originally to last one year, says Jenna
Jones, the examining board’s executive director. But after attending
the required continuing-education classes, “he requested that his
license be returned to active, which the board allowed in October.”
By turn, Robinson’s violation of a city ordinance could be fodder
for yet another investigation, says Jones. “That’s for the board to
decide. But I would need a complaint or something for the board to move
forward with.”
Meanwhile, Serna says South Tucson officials are discussing
Robinson’s actions with the Arizona Department of Racing. However,
since the department doesn’t prohibit steroids, it does little to
monitor their use. Controlled substance logs “are generally not
required to be submitted to the department,” says ADR director Luis
Marquez. “The (track) is required to keep them if we ask for them. But
we have not asked for them.”
While department employees are instructed to assist South Tucson
officials in the Robinson investigation, “I’m not aware of any requests
(South Tucson) has made to my staff,” Marquez says. Robinson “is not in
violation of any of our rules when he says that he administered
steroids.”
But if the city found him in violation, “then we would go in and
conduct our own review of the situation, and we may find that we would
need to sanction individuals or the park, depending upon what the
situation is. We do have rules about having good moral character.”
Good moral character or not, the core issue remains: Why does
Arizona permit steroid injections for greyhounds at all? That question
gains considerable heft in light of “model rules” promoted by the
Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI). Among the
ARCI’s rules is this one: “Any usage of anabolic steroids involving
racing greyhounds is strictly prohibited at any state in their training
and racing careers.”
The association, which urges states to adopt those guidelines, is
currently chaired by Erin Owens, who also chairs the Arizona Racing
Commission.
Due to medical reasons, Owens was unavailable for comment. But Ed
Martin, president of the Kentucky-based organization, defends Arizona’s
seeming inattention to such reforms. “Unfortunately, there are a lot of
model rules that are not uniformly adopted by the members,” he says.
“And sometimes that’s for a variety of reasons, some having to do with
resources.”
He says it can take a long time for rules to be put in place, “and
it takes somebody to manage those processes. I can tell you that in the
time that Ms. Owens has been chair, our association has endorsed the
creation of a new interstate compact to jointly promulgate rules, which
would be an extension of the model-rules process.”
In other words, under the proposed compact, when the association
created a new model rule, that rule could then simultaneously be
adopted by member commissions across the nation. “This initiative would
restructure how the rules of racing—including greyhound
racing—would be made in this country to achieve a more uniform
adoption of the model rules,” Martin says.
To reach that point, his association has been collaborating with the
Council of State Governments “to come up with a model piece of
legislation that we would hope all states would consider as a way to
attain a degree of uniformity and consistency with the ARCI model
rules.”
That would go a long way toward pleasing Susan Via and other
activists, who say that state-level enforcement is the best way to
permanently enforce these minimal rules, and ensure better lives for
the greyhounds.
In the meantime, says Via, Arizona racing commissioners are applying
a double-standard—and none more so than ARCI chairwoman Erin
Owens.
“Obviously, the organization that she supports thinks that, from a
professional standpoint, (banning steroids) is a good thing,” Via says.
“So it’s not just a bunch of crazies in South Tucson who think it’s a
good thing.”
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2009.
” We do have rules about having good moral character.”—- Sorry, but the phrase ‘good moral character’ and dog racing are like oil and water. Never the two shall meet as long as profits are to be made from these dogs who cannot speak for themselves and who are treated like crap. In any animal ‘industry’ greed always trumps the animal’s welfare. SHAME!
Can you just imagine if Serna did his job what a wonderful place South Tucson would be?
Remember when some cop embezzled almost $500,000 from South Tucson? Nobody acted. Federal agencies had to come in and do investigations. South Tucson thought everything was just fine and they should handle their own dirty laundry.
What if the Dept of Racing did its job led by Luis Marquez who is in an interim position? I don’t imagine he’s going to move too fast in either direction. He has 7 or 8 competitors, one is a racino lobbyist from Minnesota, sounds like a conflict of interest to me. Another resigned from the public sector after thought to be double dipping the governor.
Thanks for this article and bringing light to the never ending saga of morally bankrupt behavior and state sanctioned greyhound abuse.
There are plenty of people to blame, but I don’t know if Enrique Serna is one. Dr. Andy Carlton is certainly one to blame. Not only does he own Sahuaro Vista Veterinary Clinic, he works at the track, supposedly for the state. He’s suppose to report on treatments and medications given the dogs, but he failed to mention in fourteen years of reports that untrained, unlicensed personnel were illegally giving steroids in unknown amounts to young female dogs. How does someone miss that? Does he not know what it’s like when a dog goes into heat or hundreds of them don’t go into heat for years on end?
Here’s another idea for an article-the lack of accountability in the racing industry. If the Dept of Racing wanted to be productive, it could demand that these injury reports were more informative and more accountable.
Here’s the injury/euthanasia report for Phoenix Greyhound Park and Tucson Greyhound Park. The numbers are public record and will be provided to interested parties after a very long wait. In this case, Grey2K put these together. I have no association with G2K but am happy they did the leg work.
If you look at this report, notice how sketchy it is. It doesn’t always provide the injury type or the injury location (the part of the body) and hardly any info about the treatment provided. Does this mean NO treatment was provided?
Here’s an interesting entry:
4/22/09 RD’s Fleece –Tucson fractured left hock – was euthanized – comments: “shattered-fix the track”
5/27/09 RLM’s Singe –Tucson fractured left leg – was euthanized
comments: “severe compound fracture – trainer requested euthanization”
I could go on. There are many, too many. Here’s the report:
http://www.grey2kusa.org/pdf/G2K-2008AZInj…
Are all of these officials the buck-passing champions of the world, or what? Taxpayer dollars are paying these people? “Taxpayer” in this context, of course, excludes Tucson Greyhound Park, which is still on the receiving end of tax breaks.
Noticeably absent at this juncture in this ongoing disgrace are the voices of:
1) John Munger, attorney for Tucson Greyhound Park, (still not returning phone calls), who actually thinks he should be governor;
2) Tom Taylor, TGP manager. He’s the one who said, when the South Tucson ballot initiative was proposed, “ . . . it won’t affect us at all. It just won’t. We will just do what we need to do.”
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/237999
3) And here’s to you, Dr. Robinson. Silent now? Busy making money shooting up female greyhounds with steroids? How pathetic.
Bravo to Susan Via, Dr. Forrer. And bravo to Tim Vanderpool.
Ask yourselves why a licensed veterinarian like Dr. Robinson would have no worry about prosecution month after month. The easy answer? Greyhound racing “regulation” is a joke. The Department of Racing did absolutely nothing about the years and years of illegal steroid administration at Tucson Greyhound Park, even after the AZ Veterinary Board sanctioned the two track vets, Paul Pullen and Betty Menke, for violations of the state’s Veterinary Practice Act.
Now South Tucson ignore a law the voters passed, and hopes those who want to see the law enforced will just fade away.
Don’t. Email and telephone and write City Manager Enrique Serna and the South Tucson Chief of Police and demand that they enforce this law. Write your state representatives and senators and explain why a statewide ban on anabolic steroids for racing dogs is needed.
And most of all, ask yourself why any respectable, ethical veterinarian would repeatedly give unnecessary, dangerous drugs to young female dogs, year after year, month after month. Every veterinary textbook on canines and the drug companies who make these drugs caution against using them on a regular, sustained basis, and recommend never using them in dogs intended for breeding.
These drugs were developed and are used responsibly on an occasional basis for dogs who need to have a heat cycle suppressed for a dog show. Responsible breeders and owners would never use them every 21 days for years on end. That’s why over 100 southern Arizona veterinarians endorsed the measure passed by the voters in South Tucson.
In human medicine, the oath doctors take is “Primum non nocere,” which means first do no harm. It’s a disgrace that Dr. Robinson and track vets like Paul Pullen and Gretchen Green care more about money than the demonstrable harm they are inflicting on these defenseless dogs.
Finally, please consider greyhound adoption, and open your heart and home to these gentle, trusting dogs.
Thanks to Tom Vanderpool the citizens can continue to keep an eye on the illegal activities at the local and State level. If our “paid employees” in State & local Government would do their jobs maybe the abuse and inhumane treatment that goes on at Tucson Greyhound Park can begin to be alleviated.
Tom, Susan, Jamie, Dr. Forrer, you deserve a big thank you from all of us to believe the law and the enforcement of the law is not only required in the USA, but the decent thing to do. Laws are designed to make us a civilized society–to bad we have those who think and do otherwise.
As always, thank you, Tim Vanderpool, for keeping us all up to date. If animals are valued for the profits they make, they can only be valued for a certain amount of time. What happens after that?