Animal rights | Anima hands 650 adoption forms to Canidrome

Albano Martins speaking to a Canidrome representative

Local animal rights group Anima handed 650 adoption applications with the complete information of potential adopters to the Macau (Yat Yuen) Canidrome Company, calling for the soon-to-close site to collaborate with the association on effective adoption process.

The president of Anima, Albano Martins, handed the filled and signed application forms validated by Anima and by an international organization to a representative of the company.

“The Canidrome will take care of it but we’ll give updates later,” the representative briefly told the press.

Previously, the Canidrome said that it intended to send the animals to the mainland, an option Martins criticized.

“Mainland China already has many problems. How can Macau create more problems in China? We have to solve our own problems here,” Martins told the press yesterday.

Additionally, the animal rights activists slammed the company owned by lawmaker Angela Leong for failing to prepare a proper adoption campaign, noting that they could have had two years to arrange the process.

With only a few weeks left before its closure on July 21, Martins implied that the Canidrome was not capable of running an adoption program, after failing to run background checks on adopters.

Meanwhile, Martins hoped that Anima would be able to save all 650 dogs, citing its previous efforts in establishing dialogue with Canidrome.

“The point is that during [this] business in Macau, no dogs went out alive up to 2014. We are talking about 15,000 to 19,000 animals killed. At least now, there are no more killings,” he said.

“If we cannot save these animals, at least we did one very important thing, which was to stop the killing. Maybe these are the martyrs of the greyhounds of Macau but we hope to save them,” Martins added.

Canidrome will hold its second adoption day this Sunday, where Martins hopes adopters will be committed to adopting a greyhound.

According to him, someone who had adopted on Sunday had brought the greyhound back to the Canidrome on Tuesday.

“Some of them will go back as I know. Yesterday one of them was sent back and is already in the Canidrome again because the adopter said the dog destroys furniture,” he said.

“We have experts to help these animals to be adopted. [The greyhounds] should not be given to people just because they want to be famous and take good pictures for the press,” Martins criticized.

Commenting on the upcoming adoption day, the animal rights activist said, “if it’s a circus or theater play like last time, we [will be] very upset,” yet hoping that local residents would be able to adopt the canines to “keep them for a while.”

On June 24, the Canidrome held its adoption program that was attended by over 100 potential adopters from Macau, Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan.

According to the Canidrome’s website, the entire adoption process takes some 60 working days and residents over 18 years old are eligible to adopt as long as they provide a copy of their identity card and proof of address.

Martins noted, “I really fear for the future of these dogs. According to my information, one vet in Macau got three greyhounds through middlemen for the purpose of using them for blood transfusions.”

In recent years, allegations of blood transfusion abuse of greyhounds have surfaced repeatedly around the world, as the blood of these canines is seen as lucrative, due to higher levels of red blood cells than other breeds.