It’s been almost three years since residents in the mile-square burg of South Tucson passed a law to protect greyhounds at their rundown race track.
For most of that time, city officials have either ignored the ordinance or done their best to dance around it—to a degree that suggests either collusion with track officials, or remarkable indifference toward their constituents.
Approved by 52 percent of South Tucson voters, the Tucson Dog Protection Act was aimed at making life a bit more tolerable for the 700 or so dogs caged in the park’s kennels. Among other things, it explicitly prohibits the dosing of female greyhounds with anabolic steroids to keep them from going into heat. Those steroids are believed to cause genital deformities and severe urinary-tract problems.
Yet the dosing apparently goes on. Dr. Joe Robinson, a veterinarian from Green Valley, has admitted to the Tucson Weekly that he administers steroids at Tucson Greyhound Park. He defiantly repeated that admission to the Arizona State Veterinary Medical Examining Board, where he was disciplined for record-keeping violations. One condition of Robinson’s probation was that he obtain a “premise” license to work at Tucson Greyhound Park; he did so in February.
As Robinson explained to the Weekly in an earlier interview, his function at Tucson Greyhound Park is to drive up every three weeks and administer the drug. He argues that the city of South Tucson has no right to prohibit the practice, and track manager Tom Taylor has asserted that administering the steroids is not in violation of the ordinance.
Despite this defiance of the law, South Tucson officials claim they lack the enforcement resources to respond—and question whether a response is even necessary.
“There haven’t been any other violations,” says city attorney Hector Figueroa. “Frankly, with the budget restraints and stuff, we’ve kinda done like the state and federal government, and have to be selective as to where we spend our efforts and time on prosecutions.”
When pressed, Figueroa simply hung up.
City Manager Enrique Serna didn’t return numerous calls seeking comment.
Still, the question lingers: Just how many resources would it take to investigate a veterinarian who admits breaking the law at the very same track, time after time? For instance, it appears that neither city officials, nor the Pima Animal Care Center—which conducts kennel inspections for the city—have managed the simple step of simply asking to see Dr. Robinson’s track records.
Meanwhile, another provision in the Tucson Dog Protection Act prohibits feeding dogs raw “4D” meat, so called because it comes from livestock that’s “dead, dying, diseased or down” at the time of slaughter. The meat is customarily fed raw to racing greyhounds.
Recently, the Massachusetts-based group Grey2K USA, which works to ban all greyhound racing, obtained several Tucson Greyhound Park investigation reports from Pima Animal Care. One report, provided to the Weekly, documents a January 2010 phone conversation about the dogs’ food between Pima field investigator Debra Tenkate and track manager Tom Taylor.
“Mr. Taylor said it is 4D grade meat not for human consumption,” Tenkate writes in the report. “Mr. Taylor also said the meat can consist of beef, deer, elk, cattle and that the animals may have been sick, dead (died in truck) or road kill.”
Tenkate followed up with a call to the track’s supplier, Victory Meat in La Motte, Iowa. She spoke with Victory owner Jason Haynes, who explained that his product is composed of “animals that are condemned from plants and none (sic) productive animals from farms.”
But by the time Tenkate made a follow-up call to Taylor, the track manager had changed his story, telling the investigator that Victory “does not utilize any dying or disabled animals in their meat supply.”
At the end of her report, and despite these contradictions, investigator Tenkate found the track to be in compliance with the South Tucson law.
Tenkate tells the Weekly her judgment was based on Taylor’s assertion that the meat was being cooked before it was fed to the dogs, and she saw that each kennel was equipped with a Crock-Pot-type cooker. “My inspection was completed,” she says. “They were in compliance at that point.”
If that 4D meat is cooked, then it would not violate the Tucson Dog Protection Act. However, when the Weekly contacted Victory Greyhound Feed owner Haynes, he told us that no tracks in the country cook the meat before feeding it to dogs. “You’d lose all the enzymes if you cook it,” Haynes says. “… It would defeat the whole entire purpose. … The dogs would not be able to function at the level that they’re functioning now.”
A call to Tom Taylor was not returned.
And so, three years after the Tucson Dog Protection Act went into effect, it seems that this ongoing shell game, coupled with government apathy, has allowed the track to simply thumb its nose at the citizens of South Tucson. Nor has there been enforcement at the state level; officials with the Arizona Department of Racing say they have no jurisdiction to enforce city ordinances, and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office has yet to examine these apparent violations. Such attention would likely be sparked by someone filing a complaint, says attorney general spokeswoman Amy Rezzonico.
Nonetheless, South Tucson Mayor Jennifer Eckstrom says her city is doing its best to keep tabs on the track. “When we go down there to respond to complaints, if we happen to not catch them giving steroids … I don’t know what more we need to do—put a security guard out there?”
Asked whether the city’s cops have simply requested a peek at Dr. Robinson’s records, Eckstrom has no answer. “We have other things that we need to deal with, with regards to the Police Department,” she says. “And I’m not even sure what they would be looking for.”
But that’s not exactly rocket science, say critics of the track. Among them is Susan Via, a retired federal prosecutor who spearheaded getting the Tucson Dog Protection Act passed. She’s grown increasingly frustrated at watching South Tucson officials trot out one excuse after another.
“The city attorney has never prosecuted, despite the fact that they have all the records from the vet board proving that Robinson was doping the female greyhounds,” Via says. “He freely admitted doing it, but Figueroa has never done a thing, even though it’s a slam-dunk case.”
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2011.
This is insane!! End Greyhoundracing NOW!! End this cruelty race and all what’s come with it!!!
Tucson Greyhound Park is a criminal enterprise and anyone who patronizes them or an off-track betting establishment (where they make most of their money) is complicit in cruelty and illegality.
Check out the track’s ridiculous denials! http://www.grey2kusa.org/TomTaylor/
Arizona is one of the few states left that has greyhound racing; with the closing of the Phoenix track, only Tucson is left. Greyhound racing needs to be recognized by this state for the atrocity it is — cruelty along the same line as dog fighting and cock fighting — both illegal. While the Arizona legislature (and law enforcement, in this case) fails to take a stand, hundreds of dogs are suffering. Every minute.
Why doesn’t anybody step up and protect these sweet gentle creatures?
I am SICK of the cowards who sit on their thumbs.
I bet a lot of people are paid off.
What an utter travesty. A slap in the face of the citizens of South Tucson and a complete blight (publicity-wise) on Tucson.
While track officials and politicians play evasive games, greyhounds are continuously being abused. And I consider injection of steroids for racing purposes abuse. Absolute abuse.
“Dr. Joe Robinson, a veterinarian from Green Valley, has admitted to the Tucson Weekly that he administers steroids at Tucson Greyhound Park. He defiantly repeated that admission to the Arizona State Veterinary Medical Examining Board, where he was disciplined for record-keeping violations. One condition of Robinson’s probation was that he obtain a “premise” license to work at Tucson Greyhound Park; he did so in February.”
Revoke license. Period.
“South Tucson officials claim they lack the enforcement resources to respond—and question whether a response is even necessary.”
This is a cruel industry. TGP has one of the worst recorded conditions. Personally, they horrify me. As an adopter of rescues, that mine ever lived there (luckily never were raced there) would give me nightmares. Whether a response is necessary is another evasive stance.
Shame on you, Tucson officials. The people spoke. Listen up.
Clearly Tom Taylor will say whatever he has to in order to pacify the appropriate agencies and mislead the people of South Tucson. The truth is apparently of little or no consequence to him. And the Pima County officials are quite happy to check the necessary boxes to ignore the truth at this nasty track. The feeding of raw 4D meat is not a secret, it’s standard practice. And when you’re “cooking” for hundreds of dogs, a Crock-pot isn’t going to cut it. Unfortunately, injecting female greyhounds with steroids to prevent them going into “heat” is also standard practice. Tucson Greyhound Park’s solution has been to have “their vet” handle the injections. That’s not a solution! That’s the whole problem! And the longer the females are at TGP, the more likely they are to suffer complications as a result of those steroids.
Tom Taylor claims he’s running a top-level facility, but the fact is he’s in charge of one of the end-of-the-line tracks. A racing greyhound owner and “enthusiast” recently noted that it take a very long time for greyhounds to “grade off at Tucson.” In other words, they continue to race dogs there that would have been shipped out of other tracks. But after Tucson, there’s nowhere to go except Mexico or into adoption. When you watch the GREY2K USA video, http://www.grey2kusa.org/TomTaylor/, you can see the nasty conditions for yourself. Oh, and you can hear directly from Tom Taylor why the media aren’t allowed in to see the kennels for themselves. Apparently Taylor doesn’t trust the people to make the appropriate conclusions when faced with the truth. He’d prefer the public to just go away and let his people carry on doing what they’ve been doing, even if what they’ve been doing is illegal, unethical, and inappropriate on so many levels. The sooner TGP closes, the better.
The people of South Tucson spoke up on behalf of the dogs. Now it’s time for those same people to step up and vote out the city government who are ignoring the will of the people and being mindless puppets for the track.
Come on, South Tucson. At least come up with original excuses for not doing your job. Something like, oh, “it would interfere with our breaks!” or “we don’t know where the track is!”
“He’d prefer the public to just go away and let his people carry on doing what they’ve been doing, even if what they’ve been doing is illegal, unethical, and inappropriate on so many levels.”
The public will not just go away.
The public is just getting started.
Clearly, what needs to be done is folk need to find out what other profit-making illegal activities the South Tucson Police Department (and other State and County agencies) have no time to pursue, engage in those, and use the profits to put the track out of business.
Tucson Greyhound Park and its “officials” have been lying about the conditions at that track for years, yet nothing is being done about it. What will it take for this track to be shut down?
It is shocking to me that this type of backward, wild west thinking is still going on in America in 2011! The people of Tucson, especially the elected officials, should be ashamed and incensed that they have no more control than this over what goes on at that criminal facility/dog track TGP. It’s not just the greyhounds that suffer horribly in Tucson, but also all the humans who work so hard to advocate for them… their cries for help are all ignored by those who are paid to protect and serve them. Tucson will and should be viewed by the rest of the country as nothing more than backward and callous for allowing this cruelty to continue unchecked under the watch of it’s elected officials and law enforcement! For shame! Bless those poor suffering greyhounds that have no one to protect them.
Yet another chapter of corruption and abuse thanks to the racing industry. Shocking and disgusting.
Greyhound racing is cruel and inhumane. Greyhounds endure lives of nearly constant confinement, kept in cages barely large enough for them to stand up or turn around. While racing, many dogs suffer and die from injuries including broken legs, paralysis, and cardiac arrest. And many greyhounds are euthanized every year, as the number retired from racing exceeds the number of adoptive homes.
At racetracks across the country, greyhounds endure lives of confinement. According to industry statements, greyhounds are generally confined in their cages for approximately 20 hours per day. They live inside warehouse-style kennels in stacked cages that are barely large enough to stand up or turn around. Generally, shredded paper or carpet remnants are used as bedding.
An undercover video recently released by GREY2K USA shows the conditions in which these gentle dogs are forced to live: http://www.grey2kusa.org/azVideo.html
For more information on injuries these dogs suffer, please view:
http://www.grey2kusa.org/azInjuries.html
http://www.grey2kusa.org/eNEWS/G2K-022811E…
Dogs play an important role in our lives and deserve to be protected from industries and individuals that do them harm.
Val Wolf Board Member, GREY2K USA
Greyhound racing is cruel and inhumane, and should end. Tucson Greyhound Park is the last of the Arizona Greyhound racing facilities that is still operating, but this one is one of the worst practices in the country. At TGP, greyhounds are kept confined for an average of twenty hours a day in small, stacked cages in the dark and only see light when it is time to race. They are fed a diet based on raw, diseased meat. Then, when allowed out of their cages to race, they suffer terrible injuries and sometimes die. Many dogs are simply killed once they are no longer profitable. This is no way to treat a dog!
Please visit: http://www.change.org/petitions/pledge-to-protect-greyhounds to find out how you can help these dogs.
The Mayor of South Tucson is saying that the Police Department there doesn’t know how to enforce the law. Are they like knuckleheads? Are they just given a badge and a gun and told to go out on the streets?
This is a great article. Thank you Tucson Weekly. I support a phase out of greyhound racing in Arizona. My main concern is the cruelty of the industry, which has been pointed out quite well in this article. What I did not know and recently found out is that the tracks are paid for by taxpayers, are losing money right and left, and do not pay taxes! Why would we continue to support this?
Such a sorry excuse for a municipality. They are a laughingstock. Poor dogs.
“The Mayor of South Tucson is saying that the Police Department there doesn’t know how to enforce the law.”
Keep in mind the City of South Tucson is a one-square mile municipality.
A South Tucson police officer, when asked why the ordinance was not being enforced, claimed he didn’t even know there was such an ordinance.
That would lead one to believe South Tucson PD is not required to know local ordinances
and / or
This particular officer was never told to enforce the ordinance.
Tim
Thank you for your continued support on covering Tucson Greyhound Park.
I acknowledged your doggedness on this topic and also wrote about my conversation with Investigator Tenkate and what * I * would be looking for if I were the investigator.
Check out –
http://tucsoncitizen.com/tucson-tails/2011…
I urge readers to contact the Arizona Department of Racing (azracing.gov) and complain as well as contact your lawmakers who have continually turned a blind eye to state sanctioned dog abuse at TGP. Even the handful of lawmakers who claim to be humane do next to nothing.
What else needs to happen for the Tucson authorities to close that hell of a place? It is shameful that Arizona is still among the states where this cruelty is allowed. Greyhound racing is not good for anybody and should be ended for good!!
Why is the State of Arizona still supporting greyhound racing through its policies?