3 April 2006

Microchipping greyhounds a waste of time

Greyhound Racing New Zealand has thrown its support behind those opposing a new legislation that will require all New Zealand dog owners to microchip their dogs, including racing greyhounds.

Chief Executive Lance Bickford says that the process is a complete waste of greyhound people's time and money and will only encourage dog owners to not register their dogs with the proper authority.

"Greyhound Racing New Zealand already have an extremely reliable and detailed system in place which allows us to know exactly where every racing greyhound is all the time.

"Our ear branding policy and up-to-date records have been successful for many years therefore microchipping immediately becomes redundant in our industry as it would just double up on what we are already doing - and it would be at the cost of our trainers and owners," he said.

"If micro-chipping the dogs provided a service that wasn't otherwise available, then we would fully support the initiative but what is being proposed at this stage is just another unnecessary cost to our participants in both time and money.

"The reasoning behind the new initiative obviously has been brought on by the number of new dog attacks in recent times which we see as a social issue but as far as I can see the microchip procedure won't stop any dog from attacking and unless someone is there to actually see the event or scan the microchip in the dog, then what's the use?

"All it is doing is increasing the cost to those owners that already comply with the registration procedures of the council, and in our case, of our own policies for racing greyhounds, and punishing those who are already responsible dog owners," he said.

ENDS

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