Coke Again? Casual Contact, He Says

Cockwomble

I posted about a large number of greyhounds testing positive for cocaine at Orange Park not long ago.

Lo and behold, 5 more dogs tested positive for a metabolized form of coke.  And you guessed it.  At ORANGE PARK (no webpage I could find)

“Both Flicka and Dennis Leary are owned by Steve Sarras, who also owns the other greyhounds that McClellan trained that tested positive.

Sarras defends his trainers and dogs, saying the positive tests were for "trace amounts" of metabolites that can come from "environmental contaminants or from casual contact."”

Fairy tales are cute and joyful and comforting as a small child.  And that is best the owner comes up with?

Ø  Fairy Tale #1 - My RESCUED greyhounds are exposed to the elements every time they go outside.  To date, and their bloodwork is done to monitor for real-life issues, they have never tested positive for COKE.

Ø  Fairy Tale #2 – A banned substance such as metabolized coke cannot reach a blood stream through “casual contact” unless they can actually define “casual contact’

Perhaps Mr. Sarras could define this convenient term.  Is casual contact brushing past them?  Does it come from shoving them into a small, dark starting gate?  Maybe slapping down a bowl full of questionable food for them with a banned substance on their hands?  Maybe checking their teeth (a joke in self since rescues’ teeth are so rotted) with coke on their hands?  Mr. Sarras’s response, while industry approved, is lacking substance.

Industry, if your trainers are independent, then drug test them, for Christ’s sake!  If your dogs mean so much to you, that is…

Maybe, Mr. Sarras, you handing over a dog to a questionable trainer, with a 'here is a bitch or a stud, make it win however', is the problem. Free reign, right?

You cannot use that excuse 23 times!

It does not take a vast education to take proactive measures, nor does it take one to see this is wrong.

I guess the net sum of my rant is the industry is under pressure.  Screws are tightening, as is the noose on dog racing.  It’s becoming more and more unappealing to most and only the diehard tossers, breeders and owners fight its removal.  And you  become desperate.  And desperate is very dangerous and deadly for dogs.

They fight a losing battle.  Butts are not in the seats at the track in Florida.  The industry is dying.  As it should.  Those who fight and cling to the “old way”?  It was never right to begin with.  Now retire with dignity or go out like the travesty the industry is.

Stop putting these dogs in dangerous hands and risking their lives.  The industry is rancid from the inside out.