Three people, including two greyhound trainers, have been charged after two dogs racing in separate events tested positive for methamphetamine.
The greyhound industry believes they're cases of "accidental contamination" and blames Aotearoa's wider issue with meth.
Racing greyhounds with methamphetamine in their system is inexcusable, according to the Greyhound Racing New Zealand’s CEO Glenda Hughes.
"We have a zero-tolerance as far as any testing goes with any of these substances."
One of the trainers is North Island-based, and the other races at Christchurch’s Addington Raceway.
And Hughes said trainers get regular warnings about prohibited substances.
"And we let them know that there is no defence."
Newshub knows the identities of both the trainers, but has decided not to name them. A third person caring for one of the dogs is also facing charges.
All will have a hearing before the Racing Integrity Board's Adjudicative Committee. One of the trainers said they didn't know how their dog could have tested positive.
"It hit me like a concrete truck would hit you. I've never dealt with drugs in my life, and for them to come up with a positive is absolutely devastating. The only place the dog has been from off my property is the track. There is no security at the track, and there is public access at the track."
Hughes said the prevalence of meth use in the country is part of the problem.
"I think all dogs in New Zealand are now at risk of methamphetamine contamination."
Will Appelbe, SAFE investigations and rapid response manager, disagrees.
"Blaming this on New Zealand's problems with methamphetamine - it's passing the buck."
Appelbe said as it's a professional code, the duty of care for animals is high.
"People are making money off these dogs, so there is a high standard on trainers, a higher standard than the general public I think."
Zipping Sarah was the last dog to test positive for methamphetamine. Her trainer, Angela Turnwald, was fined and banned for 18 months last year. However, the judicial committee found Turnwald did not deliberately do anything wrong.
The industry says the issue with prohibited substances is not widespread, and trainers do face a high level of scrutiny.
Since 2019, just over 10,000 racing dogs have been swabbed for drugs, eight greyhounds have tested positive for a prohibited substance, and four for methamphetamine.
"I don't think we can say that's a problem within an industry," Hughes said.
"Accidental contamination" could occur if a meth user handled the dog in question, and the industry said the onus is on the trainer to ensure that doesn't happen.
"If you don't know the people around your dogs, or if you find out that the people around your dogs may be involved in that, we expect our trainers to exclude those people."
Newshub is also aware of a positive result for MDMA at the Palmerston North track. But it's believed that in that case a racing official contaminated the sample, not the dog.
