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