Mr Hughes hit out at the sport yesterday following the release of a Judicial Control Authority report from an inquiry which found a dog had traces of methamphetamine and amphetamine in his system.
Zipping Andre tested positive to the substances in a random post-race swab after he won a race at Cambridge, last year. The JCA disqualified his trainer, Denis Schofield, from the sport for two years after its inquiry into the breach.
Mr Hughes slammed the greyhound industry and labelled the case a new low for the sport.
‘‘Drugging dogs with dangerous methamphetamines is a new low for the greyhound industry.’’
A Greyhound New Zealand spokesperson defended its industry’s practices and said positive drug tests were rare.
‘‘The integrity of the sport and the welfare of the animals are our first priorities. We take anything like this very seriously.’’
Thousands of drug tests are taken from dogs each year and only a very small number return positive results for banned substances.
Mr Hughes called for dog racing to be shut down in New Zealand.
‘‘Only eight other countries in the world have commercial greyhound racing industries and this latest incident raises the question if, in fact, it should be reduced to seven.’’
Mr Hughes’ calls come after greyhound racing was shut down in the Australian Capital Territory on Sunday night.
ACT last year became the first Australian jurisdiction to pass legislation banning greyhound racing.
From Monday, anyone caught racing greyhounds in the ACT would face a fine of up to $A15,000 ($NZ16,000) or a year in jail.
