A measure to ban Florida's dog tracks from racing greyhounds that have tested positive for steroids cleared a key Senate panel Wednesday over objections from the state's greyhound industry.

  • Senate panel approved steroid ban for racing greyhounds
  • Critics have killed previous efforts at steroid ban
  • Bill's sponsors call the practice inhumane

The bill, SB 674 by Sen. Dana Young (R-Tampa), would end a practice animal rights activists call inhumane, and a potential contributor to the deaths of more than 400 greyhounds at Florida tracks since 2013.

So-called 'dog doping' has also been cited as a method of fixing races by enhancing dogs' performance.

"The fact that this is gambling and this is an industry on which gambling is done, we owe it to not only the dogs for their humane treatment, but to the public, to know that the races which they are betting on are done in a legal and equitable manner," Young said before Wednesday's vote by the Senate Regulated Industries Committee.

Once popular attractions, Florida's greyhound tracks have been suffering from a significant decline in business. According to the state's Department of Business and Professional Regulation, more than 2.3 million people visited the tracks in the 2006-07 fiscal year; by 2015-16, attendance had fallen to just 348,081.

Despite those figures, however, the greyhound industry remains an influential force in Tallahassee, successfully beating back legislative attempts to impose tighter regulations on dog racing, or to eliminate it entirely.

A steroid use ban failed to advance during the 2017 legislative session and industry advocates are hopeful this year's legislation will be defeated, too.

"We're talking about losing 3,000 direct jobs, losing 10,000 indirect jobs," if increased regulation leads to the end of greyhound racing in Florida, industry lobbyist Jeff Kottkamp told the Senate panel Wednesday.

The industry has also dismissed assertions that steroids affect a dog's racing performance or compromise its health. In many cases, track representatives argue, steroids are medically-necessary drugs that can help nurse an injured dog back to health.

Supporters of the steroid use crackdown say those contentions aren't supported by scientific evidence.

For all the focus on the legislative effort to ban steroids, greyhound racing critics could face better prospects -- and a more sweeping result -- with their drive to put a racing elimination amendment on the November ballot.

A proposed referendum is being considered by the Constitution Revision Commission, which meets once every 20 years to devise constitutional amendments to put before voters.