Animal Welfare Minister Meka Whaitiri is looking into harsher penalties for trainers found mistreating greyhounds.
It comes after a trainer received a four-month disqualification when her greyhound tested positive for meth, a punishment some in the industry say is too light.
Gary Cleeve has been in the greyhound industry for 40 years, he loves the sport but has concerns about doping.
“Meth is a drug that’s been absent from the racing world, but it is a drug taking over New Zealand and at some point it was going to creep into the sport,” he told 1 NEWS.
He's the brother-in-law of Foxton trainer Angela Turnwald, who was handed a four-month ban from racing and a $3500 fine after her dog Zipping Sarah tested positive for meth at Addington last November. She pleaded guilty of racing a dog on a prohibited substance, but it's not known exactly how the drug got into the dog's system.
Cleeve says a four-month ban is “very shallow”.
“In comparison for a similar offence, you'd say the latest case they did get off light.”
In 2018 trainer Dennis Schofield was banned for two years for the same offence. Last year Keith Toomer was banned for 14 months after his greyhound Margaux tested positive for meth.
But trainer Craig Roberts says a disqualification is a heavy penalty.
“Contrary to popular belief, a lot of us don’t train greyhounds to make money. Four months or six months or 12 months is basically termination of a career as a trainer, there would be very few trainers that could go four months without that source of income.”
He believes the Zipping Sarah’s positive test result was because of “environmental contamination”.
“I've known Angela Turnwald for a lot of years. I'd guarantee she wouldn’t even know what P looks like. She wasn't with the dog at the time, she didn’t come down to the races. Why would someone be so silly as to purposely administer a drug like that that’s going to make no difference to greyhound for a measly bit of stake money?”
The SPCA says it can file criminal proceedings for incidents off the racetrack, but the Judicial Control Authority and Racing Integrity Unit oversee events on the track, and they don't have that mandate.
“Their charges and the sentencing structure that comes with those sorts of offences that are brought before them are very different to those brought under the animal welfare act” SPCA inspectorate manager Alan Wilson says.
Whaitiri says the latest case of a dog ingesting meth is “abhorrent”, and says she wants to look at “higher deterrents.”
“It’s not only illegal but it’s abhorrent, it’s completely unacceptable in 2021 that we’re treating animals this way.”
“I have got levers under the Animal Welfare Act that I'm seeking advice on currently, particularly clauses 10 and 28 which have much higher penalties for people that are ill-treating their animals.”
Greyhound Racing New Zealand wouldn't front on camera but told 1 NEWS has a “zero tolerance level approach” to any indication of drug use.
Last year saw two positive methamphetamine results, but the organisation says there were none in the previous season.
SHARE ME