MEDIA RELEASE

Greyhounds Australasia (GA) today announced it will direct the Microchip Sub Committee to further investigate specific matters pertaining to the microchipping of greyhounds in Australia and New Zealand.

The announcement follows an agreement reached at its Board meeting held in Adelaide on Thursday November 20, 2008.

The matters to be explored further include consideration of an extension of the proposed phase in period for existing racing stock, individual jurisdictional cost analyses and exploration of the jurisdictional legislative impact of microchipping.

The Microchip Sub Committee will table its findings and any revised recommendations for consideration by the full GA Board at their next meeting to be held in March 2009.

In addition, the GA board representative from The Greyhound Harness Racing Regulatory Authority (GHRRA) of NSW agreed to the authority conducting their own microchip trials in New South Wales.

As such GHRRA will determine parameters for these trials, which they believe will address issues possibly not explored in the original sub-committee reports findings. In this regard GHRRA agreed to provide a summary of their findings to the next GA Board meeting.

GA Chief Executive Officer, Mr Craig Taberner said today, “The GA Board acknowledged the comprehensive nature of the Microchip Sub Committees report and recommendations but felt it was appropriate to explore a few issues in more detail.”

“The Microchip Sub-Committee determined that the introduction of microchipping would help the industry advance its animal welfare objectives, provide industry efficiencies and the integrity of the industry.”

“However, this is a big step forward for the industry and it’s important that we thoroughly explore all the issues and move forward together.”

“Our aim is to, where possible, always bring about unanimous agreement between all jurisdictions to improve greyhound racing in Australia and New Zealand.”

“We have made some real progress on microchipping and look forward to working with the Microchip Sub Committee to fine tune the report and to providing the information requested at the next board meeting.”

The next GA board meeting will take place in Tasmania, March 2009.

Craig Taberner
Chief Executive Officer
Greyhounds Australasia
Ph: 03 9548 3500
E-mail: admin@galtd.org.au

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