Greyhound Racing New Zealand launches professional development programme for participants
Greyhound Racing New Zealand (GRNZ) is pleased to announce it has launched a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Programme this week for its licensed persons.
As a condition of relicensing for the 2023/24 racing season, all trainers, litter-masters and breeders will be required to complete a series of online education modules, followed by a mandatory assessment, where 100% is the mark required to pass.
The education modules focus primarily on animal welfare and rule requirements, and serve to educate and increase greyhound racing participants' awareness of their obligations.
“We are extremely proud to be the first racing code in New Zealand to introduce a mandatory education programme for existing licence holders,” said Edward Rennell, GRNZ CEO.
“Launching this education programme has taken months of preparation and work by our team, and we are grateful to all of our participants for embracing the concept and understanding why they need to do this. This is a great initial step and creates an excellent platform for ongoing development in future years.
“We also appreciate that a number of our trainers and breeders are rurally-based with limited internet access, and we will be providing extra assistance over the phone and in-person where needed to these people.”
GRNZ has been under fire in recent times following a threatening declaration from New Zealend (NZ) Racing Minister Kieran McAnulty.
McAnulty said that NZ greyhound racing was “no longer viable” in its current form and that GRNZ were preserving a “culture of silence” against reform advocates.
McAnulty said there was not enough time to deal with the industry prior to the NZ general elections, and would address the future of the industry after the elections.
Despite McAnulty's slight against the industry, GRNZ CEO Edward Rennell said that “reforms were progressing well”.
Rennell added, “We're beginning to witness the tangible outcomes of our foundational efforts, especially in the leaps and bounds achieved in the realm of animal welfare”.
The fact that the GRNZ have been able to already implement a formal CPD programme, and in doing so become the first racing code in NZ to do so, will somewhat help quell the NZ Government and McAnulty's threats to shut greyhound racing down in the country.
By way of contrast, the legislated CPD program for NSW greyhound racing participants, that was a requirement of the return to racing following the NSW greyhound ban; is still yet to be formally implemented.