Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) President Jose Tavares said Thursday he believed that the adoption for greyhounds left behind in the now defunct racetrack kennels could be completed in May next year.
Tavares made the remarks during the bureau’s last consultative committee meeting as the bureau will become the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) next Tuesday.
The bureau has been taking care of the greyhounds left behind by Macau (Yat Yuen) Canidrome Co. Ltd. in July. The local animal protection association Anima has been assisting in the adoption process, while Yat Yuen will be fined 50,000 patacas per abandoned dog, which amounted to 533 on July 20 when the racetrack closed down for good.
After several months of adoptions, as of yesterday there were 341 greyhounds left at the ex-Canidrome’s kennels.
Tavares said that 100 greyhounds would be sent for adoption to Europe, Australia and New Zealand next month, adding he believed that the adoption process for greyhounds would be completed in May.
The city’s top municipal affairs official said that the roughly 50 greyhounds deemed not suitable for adoption due to their health condition and old age would be taken care of by Anima, which would be responsible for the respective expenditure.
He insisted that the bureau has always been supporting Anima’s work, having given Anima about 200,000 patacas as financial support annually. Tavares said that the bureau would look into whether it was possible to raise the financial support for Anima in the future.
The government had ordered the closure of the Canidrome two years ago, but Yat Yuen had not been able to relocate the greyhounds and simply abandoned them in their kennels when the Canidrome officially closed down on July 20, prompting the bureau to intervene.
