Supporting speakers for the conference themes of large animal rescue, animals in disaster, livestock transport and competition incident management include Professor Christopher Riley and Hayley Squance of Massey University, New Zealand, and Dr Christine Smith, Anthony Hatch and David King of Australia.

"This is a new area of skills & knowledge for Australia," said Julie Fiedler, Executive Officer of Horse SA and conference organiser. "The conference will help drive along the introduction of more training and education to be included not only for horse owners, but within emergency service agencies."

Riley the Rescue Horse will feature in the outdoor presentations at the conference. Imported from the UK, Riley is a life size mannequin horse weighing over 350 kgs, designed especially for large animal rescue training.

Registrations are now open for the event, to be held at the University of Adelaide, Roseworthy Campus.  Emergency service volunteers, large animal owners, educators, animal rescue volunteers, veterinarians and government staff are all invited to attend.

About the Fifth International Conference on Large Animal Rescue

The Fifth International Conference on Large Animal Rescue has selected Roseworthy Campus of the University Veterinary School in South Australia, November 2-3, 2013. Interested attendees can obtain information from the executive director of Horse SA, Julie Fiedler, at horsesa@horsesa.asn.au. The last four international conferences were held in 1992 and 1993 (California), 2005 (New York) and 2008 (Lynhurst, UK). Since then, there have been many changes, technique improvements and new equipment brought into use, as well as scientific advances related to the technical aspects of large animal rescue. This conference will bring the leaders in these disciplines together to learn from one another, and to discuss the future.

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