A dog trainer at Tucson Greyhound Park says heβs going to appeal sanctions imposed on him this week by the Arizona Department of Gaming.
Willie Davis was fined $1,500 and suspended from the track, at 2601 S. Third Ave., for 45 days following a hearing Wednesday. He has 72 hours to file an appeal.
Davis, who has been racing dogs for over 30 years, was put under investigation in November for allegedly giving steroids to two of the animals in his care.
Amanda Jacinto, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Gaming, which oversees the track, said last week that urine samples were taken from two dogs, Last Two Tails and Last Two Gigs, both race winners before being tested.
Jacinto could not be reached for comment.
Davis contacted the Arizona Daily Star before the hearing. He said he did not give the dogs any illegal substances. Davis said after the dogs go through the pre-race weigh-in, they donβt see them again until after they run. He feels he is being targeted because he is black.
βI am going to appeal this because I didnβt do anything wrong,β he said.
Steve Kozachik said friends who attended the hearing told him the drug found is not available in the United States and is known to cause both heart problems and increased muscle mass. Kozachik is a longstanding critic of greyhound racing and would like to see the track shut down.
At the hearing, Davis said he thought the drug could possibly have been in the low-grade meat thatβs fed to the dogs.
βWe have no idea where that meat comes from,β Davis said. The so-called 4D meat is raw meat that comes from dead, dying, diseased and βdownerβ animals.
The kennel owner, George Fune, did not respond to interview requests. Fune has hired a new trainer to run his dogs, Jacinto said, but she said she couldnβt provide more details.
Dale Popp, manager at Tucson Greyhound Park, said both men maintained from the outset that they didnβt do anything to the dogs. Popp wouldnβt speculate about what happened, but said they try to limit public access to the kennels so dogs donβt accidentally eat something that will alter test results.
It isnβt the first time Davis has been investigated. He was fined $1,000 by the state in 2011 for failing to properly care for greyhounds in his care, state records show.
The animals were kenneled for at least eight hours without a break in September 2011, records show.
Davis said Thursday that isnβt what happened. He said he was fined for failing to get the dogs to weigh-in on time before the race. He said he has always worked hard to care for the dogs he races.
Earlier this year, an Arizona Daily Star review of public records found Tucson Greyhound Park had not reported dog injuries to state authorities at least 30 times from January through August.
But the stateβs gaming department maintained that no laws were broken.
