Greyhound Tested Positive For Cocaine
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

GREY2KUSA.org
June 2010

A greyhound that raced frequently at the Palm Beach Kennel Club over the last two years tested positive for cocaine at least once while racing in South Florida.

The dog, a 70-pound black male named Tempo Super Stud, raced in 12 races in Palm Beach between August 2008 and September 2009, winning two, according to greyhound-data.com. The positive drug test occurred in November of 2008.

A urine sample from the dog, tested at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida, showed Benzoylecgonine and Ecgonine Methyl Ester, both metabolites of cocaine, in the dog's blood stream.

Though the incident happened nearly a year and a half ago, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation's case against the dog's trainer, Marvin Caballero, remained open until earlier this year. Caballero was fined $1,000 and suspended for ten days, August 11 through August 22, 2009.

Tempo Super Stud raced three times during those two weeks, and continued to race in Palm Beach until September. The dog also raced at the Ebro Racetrack, by Panama City, as recently as last month.

Caballero had another dog test positive for a different drug in June 2009.

"Obviously we don't know if this was an attempt to fix the outcome of a race or some kind of transference from a human," said Carey M. Theil, executive director of GREY2K USA, the national anti-dog racing group, "but I don't know which scenario is more troubling: that trainers are using cocaine to fix races or that trainers are using cocaine when they handle the dogs."

Theil added: "I think this begs the question, are there other irregularities at Florida tracks?"

Reached by phone this afternoon, Theresa Hume, the PBKC publicity director, said she wasn't aware of the incident or any others like it.

A DBPR representative said that the division has opened 170 drug positive cases this fiscal year, though this is the only one in Palm Beach.


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