Abuse Of Greyhounds Alleged At Idaho Track

POST FALLS, Idaho - A greyhound trainer says he has witnessed after-hours atrocities at the Coeur d'Alene Greyhound Park, and state officials are now investigating his claims.

Dog trainer Larry Conarty says greyhounds that can't win races are electrocuted and their bodies taken to a dump.

"That's where the dogs go to be tortured," Conarty said of the track in a copyright story yesterday in The Spokesman-Review. "They can't run anywhere else."

Conarty told the Spokane newspaper he lost his racing contract when he blew the whistle on abuse and mismanagement at the track.

Now, the state Department of Law Enforcement and the racing commission in Oregon, where dog racing also takes place, are investigating dog trainer Gary Burman, who owned Axel Greyhounds.

His racing contract at Coeur d'Alene Greyhound Park was canceled two weeks ago.

Another trainer, Rory Bracken, whose racing contract was canceled in an unrelated management dispute, told state investigator Tom Beal that he saw Burman electrocute a dog, the newspaper reported.

Bracken passed a lie-detector test, the state racing commission said.

Bracken told investigators that last December Burman electrocuted a dog called Queen of the Ring, which was too slow to run at the track and too spooked to be a good pet.

Bracken said he reported the killing to the track's chief racing judge, C.L. Schomburg, who is employed by the state racing commission. Schomburg denies it, the newspaper said.

Steve Bergeron, 1994's leading winner at the park, sent the state investigator a three-page complaint.

"I witnessed continuous and almost daily cruelty to greyhounds by most kennel personnel," wrote Bergeron, who now lives in Nevada. "I fought with track management and the state racing commission constantly to get them to enforce rules and stop this from happening. I was not successful."

In an interview on Sept. 1, Burman, 62, denied any wrongdoing.

"Why the hell should I go around killing dogs?" he asked. "I'm deathly against putting dogs down."

A few hours later, Burman told neighbors he was moving to Kansas and left town.

Track manager Al May said Coeur d'Alene Greyhound Park, which opened in 1988, will be absolved of wrongdoing.

The track has little control over what dog handlers do after hours on the property they lease, he said.