Greyhound Anti-doping Regulations Found Invalid

Florida Orca Protection Act Proposed

January 10, 2018

Herpes-carrying Macaques may be Removed from Silver Springs Park

February 1, 2018

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Administrative Law Judge Lawrence P. Stevenson issued an order invalidating actions based on drug testing protocols from a 2010 manual that were never formally adopted or approved by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation Division of Para-Mutuel Wagering. The ruling is the result of litigation subsequent to a decision in early 2015 in which the use of the 2010 manual was deemed inappropriate. The DPBR continued to employ the protocols set forth in the manual and this practice has now been halted.

The result opens the door for the continued and unregulated use of drugs like cocaine metabolites and anabolic steroids on racing greyhounds. Moreover, there is no longer a mechanism in place to hold trainers accountable for the use of such substances on their dogs. The situation has been described as “the Wild West” by Carey Theil, the executive director of the nonprofit greyhound protection organization GREY2K USA. Theil hopes that the DBPR will adopt emergency procedures to protect dogs and develop a new testing protocol in compliance with the the ruling. This entire situation arises as a proposed amendment which would ban greyhound racing statewide makes its way through the Constitution Revision Commission in an attempt to reach the 2018 ballot.