Editorial: Drugging report shows time to end dog racing in Florida

Editorial Board
Naples Daily News
Greyhounds on racetrack.

It’s past time for Florida lawmakers to bring greyhound racing to its finish line in the state.

There is a possibility registered voters will have an opportunity to end dog racing in November 2018 when proposed revisions to the Florida Constitution go on the ballot. A measure proposed by two state Senate veterans as part of a constitutional review process would end greyhound racing. Their proposal passed one of two review committees, setting Dec. 31, 2019, as the anticipated finish line for dog racing.

We would enthusiastically urge voters to support the amendment should it get to the ballot next year.

Yet there are hundreds of proposals under consideration by the Florida Constitution Revision Commission, which is convened every 20 years to analyze what amendments should be submitted to voters to decide. The commission’s chairman has said just eight to 16 amendments will advance to the November 2018 ballot, depending on their complexity.

It’s shaping up as a long ballot. There will be important national, state and local elective races, in addition to the amendments.

So we’re not sure why it’s necessary to lengthen that ballot with a measure we’re convinced will be overwhelmingly supported by Floridians anyway. Instead, it would be preferable for the Legislature when it meets in January to just end greyhound racing and render moot the need to accomplish this by an amendment, which must receive at least 60 percent voter approval to pass.

“Us winning on this issue is inevitable,” said Carey Theil, executive director of the Grey2K USA Worldwide greyhound advocacy group, at a joint meeting of Naples Daily News and News-Press editorial board representatives.

We agree.

Why wait?

Florida is one of just six states still allowing dog racing. Forty states have outlawed it. With a dozen tracks in Florida, about 450 racing dogs have died since 2013 when the state began requiring mortality data. Another 13,000-plus were injured, most commonly breaking a leg, at tracks nationwide from 2008 through 2015, animal welfare groups report.

A racing association’s report shows wagering on dog races declined from $3.5 billion in 1991 to about $500 million by 2014. Tracks in the state report they’re losing money on the dog racing part of their pari-mutuel businesses, which are financially sustained otherwise, such as by poker games. State law requires tracks to offer dog races to have profitable card rooms.

If those weren’t enough reasons to end dog racing, along comes an alarming report by Grey2K.

The recent report documents 847 drugged racing animals, with nearly half of the positive drug tests in Florida. Of the 847, 71 dogs tested positive for cocaine. Keep in mind those numbers are just from random testing at tracks.

Meanwhile, the report says Florida budgets about $2.7 million yearly for drug-testing racing animals and samples. By reducing costs for testing if there is no dog racing, money might be redirected into job training for anyone losing work once dog racing ends.

A gate has opened to ending greyhound racing through Senate Bill 840 by state Sen. Travis Hutson, R-Palm Coast, on Florida’s east coast. His bill would “decouple” the requirement to have dog races in order to operate a card room, provided the track has maintained 10 straight years of a full racing schedule.

Hutson’s measure, while billed in a news release as a “limited approach” to gaming, unfortunately includes other controversial reforms. That’s what’s kept the desirable “decoupling” proposal for greyhound racing from passing in the past.

Lawmakers can simplify this by ending dog racing, eliminating the need for a ballot measure that’s sure to pass.