Animal Farm | Washing hands?

Albano Martins

It has been announced that the Canidrome wants to send the greyhounds to China!

The Macau Government’s policy seems to be as usual, following the “laissez faire, laissez passer” posture, washing its hands when the issue is about the free market.

The Canidrome knows that only a few of the greyhounds can be adopted within one and a half months, so, they have argued, as the deadline nears that very few people want to adopt them. Next month’s closure of the Canidrome was known two years ago, when there were more than 120 inactive animals there. Now, there are only a few days remaining on the deadline. Anima sent its last letter on May 18, the latest in many letters, advice and recommendations  sent by Anima in the past, anticipating these problems!

The Canidrome and the Macau Government may have forgotten that Anima has found around 430 potential adopters from all over the world, including within Macau and Hong Kong, and it definitely did not happen in one and a half months, but over several months, even years.

Anima recently offered its support to the Canidrome for the adoption program but, as usual, has received no answer.

The Macau Government will be under very tight observation and scrutiny from local and international communities and I believe also from the China central government authorities, regarding the future of its greyhounds.

From 2012, Anima has been asking for an adoption program for greyhounds, but it was not really done.

Angela Leong recently said that she does not believe there are any happier dogs in the world than the greyhounds of Macao.

Well, this is the price of freedom, everybody is free to joke with our authorities!

What about those thousands of animals that were not able to have an option and were all killed?

Were they so happy, or even healthy, when they were killed, even if they were healthy?

A few days ago, she announced races were not happening anymore, and Mr. Lei Chi Man, executive director of Canidrome confirmed that the races will cease on July 2.

If the greyhounds will run on the track until the last day, who is going to believe that on that final night all of them will be removed, so that when the Government wakes up the next day, the facilities will be all released?

Not forgetting, of course, the toy collection kept for the animals in the Canidrome!

In conclusion, it is better to imagine a beautiful toy than a rug on the floor!

For a long time, Anima has mentioned that Canidrome wants to send all greyhounds to China.

First Leong said that she had to ask the animal owners if they could be put into adoption (she didn’t know she was the major owner?). With the decrease from over six hundred greyhounds, the SJM workers, and her friends, could have kept them all.

This may be a silly question, but what does SJM have to do with this greyhound business?

Now, she says that the process would be much easier if they are all sent to China.

Going to China, right next door without being desexed, is much easier and more profitable indeed!

If they go to China, of course it is more profitable if they are not desexed (as what happens now with the large majority) and this could be a new source of income: breeding for sale to the tracks that exist internally, as well as supplying other parts of Asia! This will create a potential violation of China’s laws.

The Australian breeders who sold many of the greyhounds to the Canidrome violated the industry’s own rules, as they were sent to Macao without the approval of Greyhounds Australasia. This then created a serious problem of potential breeding of these animals in China, yet Macao has closed its eyes!

Now they want to send them provisionally to the Jockey Club, where there is a lot of housing around, and even hotels? Well I like the imagination of those people! Business first, as usual!