Animals Australia joins greyhound export fight
13/12/2011 10:30:00Alexandra Lages
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After Grey2K USA, the second largest animal protection organisation in Australia, Animals Australia, has also sent a letter to the Macau Canidrome calling for ex-racing dogs to be sent to a new home, instead of being put down.
Animals Australia senior campaigner Jeroen van Kernebeek told Macau Daily Times that a letter was sent to the director of the Canidrome, Ng Chi Sing, on December 2.
In addition, the organisation has started an online campaign (http://www.animalsaustralia.org/take_action/save-greyhounds-from-export) to ask the Australian Government to ban the export of greyhounds, including to Macau.
Up to last week over 1,700 people have called on Minister for Agriculture, Joe Ludwig, to stop Australia’s export of greyhounds.
Race dogs are not given a chance to live a second life beyond racing in Macau. According to estimates, a total of 383 healthy greyhounds were put to death at the Canidrome last year.
Choi U Fai, head of the Municipal and Civic Affairs Bureau’s animal control division, had said that the Canidrome euthanises some 30 dogs each month, one per day.
In the letter, Animals Australia expresses its concern over the treatment of greyhounds in Macau and their culling when their racing days are over. The organisation urged the Canidrome to find a second home for ex-racing dogs.
“The lack of a rehoming programme in any form of these young healthy dogs is inexcusable,” Animals Australia executive director Glenys Oogies wrote.
Oogies stressed that the organisation is opposed to the Canidrome’s approach, “as is the majority of the Australian community”.
Currently Grey2K and Greyhound Rescue, a non-profit organisation in Australia that finds new homes for greyhounds, launched an adoption campaign of one Canidrome dog called Brooklyn (http://www.grey2kusa.org/rescuebrooklyn/).
This campaign came after the Macau Society for the Protection of Animals (ANIMA) joined forces with Grey2K USA, the largest greyhound protection organisation in the United States, to find a second life for greyhounds that are exported from Australia to the local Canidrome.
After a visit to Macau in October, Charmaine Settle from the Board of Directors of Grey2K USA vowed to contact other animal welfare protection groups in order to increase awareness of what happens at the Macau Canidrome.
