Animal welfare | Abandonment of dogs leading to stray problem in Coloane

Lucky Dogs Rescue Group volunteers Chantelle Longhurst and Caroline Franks (right) and the three dogs up for adoption

A local non-profit organization that seeks to provide temporary solutions to the problem of stray dogs in the city says that uninformed owners who are unwilling to take on the responsibility of caring for such animals are contributing to the prevalence of the dogs on the street.
Caroline Franks, a volunteer at Lucky Dogs Rescue Group, said that uninformed owners who don’t know how to care for the dogs sometimes abandon them on the streets once they become frustrated.
“Many dogs are kept in apartments all day without being let out to go to the toilet outside or to get exercise,” she told the Times. “Owners become increasingly frustrated at cleaning up dog mess and dealing with unexercised, bored dogs, [leading them to] often abandon their dogs.”
Lucky Dogs Rescue Group was founded last year with the aim of providing a holistic, if less than ideal, solution to the problem of stray dogs in Coloane, where there may be as many as 150 such animals.
The group seeks to control the population of the dogs and ensure their wellbeing. Group members undertake tasks such as de-sexing the stray dogs and treating illnesses (especially tick fever), feeding strays with local restaurant leftovers and, where possible, rehoming dogs within Macau.
“We aim to reduce the population in a non-invasive way, not impounding or killing the animals, but de-sexing and returning them to the street,” said Franks. “While this is not the perfect solution, it is in most cases the only option.”
However, not all dogs found on the street can be treated in the same way. Variance in the size of the dogs normally indicates different reasons for them becoming stray animals and usually warrants different approaches from the volunteers.
The smaller stray dogs tend to have been abandoned by their owners after they have acclimatized to human contact, explains Franks. Thus they tend to be easier of to rehome because of their smaller stature and because they are “people-friendly.”

Anu, the male dog up for adoption

Meanwhile, the larger strays have often been born as such, with little or no human contact, and may form or join packs. Subsequently, they are more difficult to domesticate, and few adopters possess the patience and are willing to undertake the effort required to turn them into family pets.
“These dogs are often living on construction sites, industrial areas and [there are] a few packs living wild in the woods,” said Franks. “In many cases, the dogs are bred on construction sites for security and their puppies are often used as dog meat by laborers from the mainland.”
As for the older dogs, Franks says that they are “extremely wary of people and it’s a big challenge to catch them. So we try to foster a relationship with the dogs so that they come to trust us, making it easier to approach them. This is especially crucial when there is a need to medicate the dogs.”
In reference to some stray dogs that have been spotted demonstrating an awareness of “road safety,” Franks said that there are some that learn how to cross the road in a safe manner, however “most often they don’t, as we do come across a lot of dogs that have been hit by cars or trucks.”
“I have been involved in other similar organizations, treating the stray dogs of Macau and wanted to start a group concentrating on those in Coloane,” said Franks.
“At the moment, our main focus is to rehome these dogs overseas because of the lack of suitable homes in Macau and we are at present concentrating on Australia, as I have connections there and foster homes ready to receive dogs,” she added. “The aim is to raise funds or [secure] sponsorships to send these dogs overseas and pay for the costs involved in rehoming them.”
The volunteer also says that more effort is needed to address the causes of the issue. To this end Franks proposes that only stray dogs should be put up for sale in pet shops in Macau, and not the more popular “designer dogs” – which typically originate from Taiwan and Hong Kong. According to Franks, some parts of the U.S. and Canada already have this policy in place.

Volunteer hoping for Canidrome closure

Asked for her opinion on the state of greyhounds in Macau and the Canidrome facility, which is having its renewal considered by the government this year, Franks said that she hopes the center will be closed and that the dog racing industry in Macau will end. “The Canidrome in Macau has a declining number of people visiting it and my hope is that it will be closed down, ending the dog racing industry in Macau,” she said.

Three dogs looking for homes

Lucky Dogs Rescue Group is now appealing to either Macau-based individuals to adopt one or more dogs, or to individuals and companies willing to sponsor up to three dogs being sent to Australia.
Caroline Franks, who is a volunteer of Lucky Dogs Rescue Group, explained to the Times that the dogs are registered in the city but are in need of homes. She said that there is a foster family in Australia willing to take them in, but that sending the dogs there will be an expensive and difficult process that could cost MOP30,000 to MOP40,000 per dog.
The three dogs are each two years old and are de-sexed and rabies vaccinated. There are two females, named Enki and Patra, and a male dog called Anu.
They were collected last year from a construction site, vaccinated and taken to the Taipa Dog Carnival 2015, in hopes of finding adoptive families. After the volunteers were unsuccessful in this endeavor, the dogs were re-released onto the construction site where they were found.
One construction worker was subsequently issued with a MOP600 fine after a site inspection by the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, which also reportedly told him to remove the dogs else the bureau would be back to take them away.
“In light of this situation we began to discuss and plan our options in helping these dogs. We decided to prepare them for export to Australia in the event we didn’t find anyone in Macau willing to take them. There were five dogs on the site but only three of these were approachable and able to be taken,” explained Chantelle Longhurst, another volunteer at Lucky Dogs Rescue Group.
“Considering the dogs are now 2 years of age and have never been domesticated, they have settled into life in Caroline’s home very well. House trained without any difficulty and getting on well with her other dogs,” added Longhurst.
“I wish I could afford to send them all [without asking for funding] but, of course, it’s not possible. So we are looking for sponsors to help with the three dogs,” said Caroline Franks. “It would be ideal to have a company or large group of people sponsor the cost of each dog.”
The other option is to send the dogs to another Western country, such as the U.S., Canada or practically any European country, explained Franks, who added that they have reached out on social media to this end.