Cover Stories Summer 2000

One Thousand Wisconsin Racing Greyhounds Sold to Cardiac Research Lab

Madison, Wisconsin: Federal and state officials began an investigation in early April into allegations that a Wisconsin kennel operator illegally diverted greyhounds from the St. Croix Meadows track in Hudson to a private research laboratory in Minnesota. The escalating scandal has rocked the foundation of Wisconsin's much-heralded "model" racing statutes, enacted in 1989, which guaranteed a good home for all retired racers.
Daniel Shonka, a member of the National Greyhound Association (NGA), operates a racing kennel at the St. Croix Meadows track in Hudson. He also runs Greyhound Adoption of Iowa from his residence in Cedar Rapids and holds a U.S. Department of Agriculture Class B dealer license under the name ShoDan Enterprises, which allows him to sell dogs to research labs.

". . . the sale of 1,000 dogs by one man over three years should have raised red flags for regulators. "
Pamela Finamore, Attorney-at-Law

Shonka is under investigation by the USDA, the Wisconsin Division of Gaming, and the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation for allegedly obtaining greyhounds from unsuspecting owners whose dogs were racing at the Hudson track, then selling them for $400 each to a private research lab. State gaming officials estimate his dealings netted $500,000 in three years.
Most of the greyhounds were sold to Guidant Corp.'s Rhythm Management Group, a cardiac research lab in St. Paul. Guidant is a publicly traded company based in Indianapolis that manufactures implantable pacemakers and defibrillators. As of June 20, the USDA and the gaming division had traced 1,086 greyhounds on Guidant's records directly to Shonka. All but 108 of those dogs died in Guidant's St. Paul lab. According to USDA records, the dogs were used in experiments involving "pain or distress to the animals."
Scott Scepaniak, administrator of the gaming division, said Shonka's records indicate the greyhounds "went directly from the racing kennel to the lab" although owners "were under the impression that the greyhounds were going to be adopted out." Scepaniak said the kennels are required to keep detailed paperwork, called "outslips," when dogs leave Wisconsin tracks. "We are looking at a possible massive fabrication of those slips," he said. Fines imposed by the state could reach up to $10,000 per violation.
Carol Lindahl, a spokeswoman for Guidant, said, "We believed we were dealing with a licensed vendor and had no idea there were any violations of law." She said the federal government requires testing pacemakers on animals before implanting them in humans. After the experiments, which may last for months, the dogs are killed, Lindahl said.

Paper Trail Uncovers Scam
Shonka's adoption seam was uncovered through a records search. On Feb. 16, Sherry Cotner, Greyhound Protection League (GPL) of North Carolina, sent a records request to the Minneapolis VA Medical Center seeking information on greyhounds. On March 15, she received a written reply and, inexplicably, one acquisition sheet from Iotek, Inc., another Minneapolis research lab. The sheet, dated Sept. 10, 1997, listed five greyhounds sold to Iotek by ShoDan Enterprises. Using the USDA's list of animal dealers, Cotner found that ShoDan was owned by Shonka. She then found Shonka listed in the NGA's 1999 member directory.
Cotner, working with independent greyhound advocate Cynthia Cash, brought Shonka's dealings to the attention of the USDA and the gaming division on March 24. Officials of both agencies asked Cotner and Cash "to develop the case against Shonka." The one-week delay in the start of the probe prompted GPL director Susan Netboy to send out a press release April 4. "The gaming division has completely failed these greyhounds," Netboy said. "They possessed both the documentation and the legal authority to deal with this years ago."
The story broke in the Wisconsin State Journal Wednesday, April 5. In the article, Scepaniak said that two greyhound racing officials, chief steward Dan Subach and analyst Chris Patton, were in Cedar Rapids on April 3 and 4 where they met with Dr. Steven Bellin, a USDA field inspector. Cotner learned from Bellin that they went to Shonka's residence to compare the number of dogs Shonka signed out of the St. Croix track against the acquisition and owner release forms. They also compared the signatures on those forms against owner signatures on file with the gaming division. Shonka surrendered his USDA license April 3.

Search Begins for Live Dogs
In a conversation with Subach, Cash learned that the gaming division sent the still-unidentified lab a "cease and desist" letter April 5, a strong indication that there were live dogs in the facility. Cotner and Cash began searching the USDA's website for likely research labs in close proximity to the track. They came up with Guidant, 20 miles from Hudson across the Minnesota border. Late on April 16, Bellin intimated that they had guessed correctly.
Cash, meanwhile, began calling trainers, kennel owners, and her adoption contacts in Wisconsin. With their help. Cash developed a list of dogs that had been turned over to Shonka within the last few weeks. The NGA registry provided Cash with owner information based on the dogs' racing names.
The first two owners identified were Gerald Edison of New Hampshire and John Taylor of Kansas. Cash told them their dogs recently had been sold to Guidant by Shonka and may still be alive. Edison said his dog, DD's Slippy Nipi, arrived at Shonka's Hudson kennel in February, where she was sup- posed to race. Taylor said he sent Stat US Biscuit and Stat US Saucy, two blue fawn female litter mates born November 1997, to Shonka's Hudson kennel in mid-March. Shonka had "zero" permission to ship the dogs to Guidant, Taylor said. While he is grateful that his two dogs were spared, Taylor said he feels sorrowful. "You've got to think about all the dogs that went before."

Lab Agrees to Release Dogs
The USDA and the gaming division repeatedly denied verbal requests by Cash and Cotner for a list of live dogs in the lab. Netboy, who feared for the safety of those dogs, retained St. Paul attorney Pamela Finamore on April 17 to act as an intermediary between the lab and the known handful of dog owners. Cotner prepared documents staling that Edison and Taylor never granted permission for their dogs to be used in research,which the owners signed and faxed to Finamore. They contacted Finamore the same day and negotiations with Guidant began. Slippy Nipi and Stat US Biscuit had not yet been subjected to any procedures.
"For the most part, the owners have been concerned. Some owners are totally outraged," Finamore said. But she said some owners with dogs found alive at Guidant told her, "Do what you need to do, get it adopted, I don't want to be involved anymore." Other owners, she said, "are reluctant to talk because they don't want to put a bad light on the greyhound racing industry."
Guidant agreed to surgically reverse the procedures performed on the dogs they had used and release them after they underwent a ten-day antibiotic regimen. The first group of greyhounds was released May 2 and delivered by Guidant to a clinic in a St. Paul suburb, where they were vet checked and vaccinated at Guidant's expense.
The dogs were then picked up by volunteers with Rochester REGAP (Retired Greyhounds as Pets). "They all seemed to be in good condition. They were actually quite frisky when we picked them up," said Marcia Latz, REGAP'S director. The only visible injuries to the dogs were scars on their shaved necks where lead wires had been inserted into their hearts through their jugular veins, Latz said. Not all of the released dogs had been implanted. REGAP made three trips to St. Paul to pick up released dogs.
In late May, the Minnesota chapter of Greyhound Pets of America, led by Robin Krautbauer, volunteered to pick up additional dogs who were fostered until they were placed in homes or dispersed to other adoption groups in the Midwest.
On May 16, six weeks after the investigation began, the gaming division finally responded to Finamore's repeated formal requests for the list of live dogs, which included 108 greyhounds. Five of those dogs have yet to be identified.
During those six weeks. Cash identified dogs and their owners by piecing together tidbits of information she obtained through hundreds of phone calls. Ultimately, Cash and Cotner identified and contacted 55 owners, none of whom had given Shonka permission to sell their dogs to research.
"The Wisconsin Division of Gaming has not gotten a single dog released from the lab. It's bad enough that they let this happen to begin with, but to deliberately thwart the efforts of those doing the work is an outrage," Cash said.

Epilogue: As of June 23, 56 greyhounds had been released. GPL bore the cost of the necessary legal fees which had reached $8,000 by May 31. [Six of 55 owners contributed a total of $1,500 toward the release of their dogs.] Dogs will continue to be released throughout the summer and GPL expects to incur an additional $2,000 in legal expenses. GNN readers who would like to contribute to GPL's legal fund may send a check to GPL at P.O. Box 669, Penn Valley, CA.95946.

Sources: Wisconsin State Journal: Andy Hall, Phil Brinkman
Cedar Rapids Gazette: Rick Smith
(Minneapolis) Star Tribune: Pay Doyle
The Des Moines Register: Sarah Baker
Chicago Sun-Times: David Southwell