Overseas associations mobilized to call for Canidrome closure

Local animal rights group Anima mobilized 164 other overseas associations in a concerted effort to call on the government to pull the plug on greyhound-racing activities in the territory.
With the Canidrome’s concession set to expire within three months and after multiple petitions against the races, Anima earlier teamed up with another lobbying organization based in the United States, GREY2K USA Worldwide, to launch an online signature-collecting campaign on Change.org to pressure the authorities to shut down the only racetrack for dogs in Asia.
The campaign has garnered close to 300,000 signatures so far and will be presented to the head of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, Alex Vong today. Moreover, during the past two months in a separate campaign, the group also gathered roughly another 3,000 signatures in the streets, said Albano Martins, president of the group.
“We did it a few times, around four or five, and we collected that number,” he said.
The group also enlisted global support for its resolution to close down the facility that has euthanized 30 greyhounds each month, with 10 of the 164 supporting organizations turning up to last night’s media briefing to spell out their collaborative efforts.
“We asked them to support our petition to spread the message to all communities. After we set up the petition, we have almost 300,000 people supporting us,” said Martins, adding that 65 groups were from the mainland.
Aside from the Canidrome’s closure, Mr Martins also urged the government to redevelop the dog track into a facility benefiting the surrounding densely populated neighborhood.
“Now we have a letter signed by these 10 organizations plus Anima recommending the chief executive let the Canidrome’s concession expire and not continue and transform that area for the communities,” added the group’s head. Staff reporter