A greyhound trainer whose dog tested positive for meth last year says dealing with the incident has been a “living nightmare”.
Angela Turnwald appeared before the Judicial Control Authority’s appeals tribunal at Te Rapa racecourse in Hamilton today, as racing investigators push for a tougher penalty.
Turnwald’s greyhound, Zipping Sarah, won her race at Addington in November last year.
Afterwards, the dog tested positive for meth, with investigators finding she had a “particularly large” amount of the illicit drug in her system.
Turnwald pleaded guilty at a hearing in April after it was found Zipping Sarah had ingested meth “somehow” between the time of leaving base in Foxton and when the dog arrived in Christchurch, transported by Turnwald’s partner. She received a four-month ban from racing and a $3500 fine.
Today, counsel for the racing integrity unit, Emma Smith, argued the fine was “not adequate” and wouldn’t send a serious enough message to trainers.
“If penalties aren't high enough the public can lose trust in the industry, lose trust in our animal welfare conduct and therefore lead to loss in revenue.
“There's concerns that presentation of drug cases in animals is increasingly having softer penalties, from a starting point that should've been five years disqualification to now just eight months.”
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. (Source: Other)
In April, the racing integrity unit initially called for a disqualification of 14 months, but today it called for a minimum racing ban of two years.
Turnwald’s lawyer, Murray Branch, argued it “makes no sense” for the RIU to change its stance without any new evidence.
He claimed there is video evidence of someone touching Zipping Sarah after her race. In April, Turnwald’s initial defence was that people who had smoked methamphetamine patted the dog after the race, but she later abandoned that defence after experts said the drug would have taken hours to work through the dog's system.
Branch argued that because it’s not known how the dog ingested meth, "the lack of care in this case was on the low end".
He said that Zipping Sarah was allowed to be exercised by a third party before the race in Christchurch.
"That’s an area of risk and in hindsight shouldn't have happened," he said.
It comes after claims changes demanded three years ago aren’t being made. (Source: Other)
Turnwald choked back tears as she read out a statement, saying media coverage of her case had negatively impacted her mental health and her business.
"My business has run more into loss, and people would ask why I continue to do this…You don't get into greyhound racing for the money," she said.
Turnwald said she had dedicated her life to her dogs “and to lose them in such a short period has been nothing short of devastating…The situation I find myself in has been a living nightmare".
She said her family have been continually harassed inside and out of the industry because of the case and that her guilty plea "came down to the fact of cost".
“The longer the investigation dragged out the higher the cost…I'm extremely upset my decision has had to become financial."
She says the racing integrity unit failed Zipping Sarah at last year’s race by not making sure that no one patted her afterwards.
"I can only hope that no other trainer finds themselves in a similar scenario as it’s been life changing in a negative way," she said.
The appeals tribunal has reserved its decision on the penalty, which will be released at a later date.
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