Thirty dogs killed a month at Macau's Canidrome and adoption programme a sham, claims animal rights activist

An animal rights activist in Macau has labelled an adoption programme offered by the city’s greyhound racing track a sham and claims more than 30 dogs are still being killed each month.

Albano Martins, president of Anima – the Society for the Protection of Animals (Macau) – claims only three dogs have been adopted since the Canidrome – Asia’s only greyhound track – introduced the adoption programme in 2012 on orders from the Macau Government following an investigation in the South China Morning Post in 2011 that exposed that in 2010 383 underperforming dogs were destroyed.

Martins says dogs – as young as two or three years old – are killed if they not “profitable”. He says dogs are killed if they are ill, injured or if they fail to place in the top three in five consecutive races.

The claims come as the lease for the Canidrome expires in October this year.

He says he knows of one dog that was adopted by a vet who works for the Canidrome and two others adopted by Macau residents.

“The Canidrome doesn’t allow anybody to go inside their kennels … the three dogs that were adopted were sent to the municipal kennel [government kennel] for people to adopt there.”