Use of drugs endangers horses and horse racing, senators are told

WASHINGTON National regulations are needed to stop the continued abuse of racehorses with painkillers and other drugs, experts and members of the horse racing industry told a Senate committee on Thursday.

"The horse racing industry has demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to regulate itself," testified Sheila Lyons, director of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, at a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee hearing.

The issue of drug use in horse racing has received renewed attention after an investigation by the New York Times that found trainers in the United States had been caught illegally drugging horses 3,800 times since 2009. Unlike other sports, horse racing lacks a commission that issues uniform rules. Although most states have banned steroids in horse racing, rules and enforcement that regulate other performance-enhancing drugs and therapeutic medications vary across states.

Certain medications can legitimately help the healing process of ailing horses, but when they are used to "mask pain on an unsound horse so that he or she can race on the track, the drug becomes an abusive practice that puts the life of the horse and jockey at risk," said committee chairman John Rockefeller (D-W.Va).

Other drugs, such as demorphine, a tree frog extract that works as a powerful painkiller and was recently found in 30 horses in four states, have no therapeutic value.

The use of pain medication to mask injuries can lead to the breakdown of horses. Ninety percent of fatal injuries in horses result from preexisting injuries, according to a report by UC Davis veterinary medicine professor Susan Stover.

"We have come to accept death on the racetrack," Marc Paulhus, former director of equine protection at the Humane Society, said at the hearing.

When trainers are cited for injecting their horses with illegal drugs, the penalties are "a joke," with trainers facing only short suspensions that can be postponed, said Jeffrey Gural, chairman of American Racing and Entertainment, an operator of horse racing, resort, and gaming facilities.

On Monday, horse trainer Doug O'Neill accepted a 40-day suspension in California for violations involving excessive levels of carbon dioxide in a horse named Argenta who ran at Del Mar in 2010.

O'Neill trained I'll Have Another, the horse who was retired because of a leg injury just before the Belmont Stakes, preventing him from competing for what might have been the first Triple Crown in 34 years. Veterinary reports indicated that I'll Have Another was suffering from osteoporosis and was treated with pain medication.

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Use of drugs endangers horses and horse racing, senators are told