Greyhounds Australasia bans racing dog exports to Macau track
Australian body halts supply of racing dogs to Macau, citing inadequate care
Australia's leading greyhound racing body has banned the export of dogs to Macau in a move that could threaten the future of the controversial Canidrome track.
Greyhounds Australasia has stopped issuing so-called "greyhound passports" to dogs being sent to Macau because it "does not support the export of greyhounds to any country that does not meet contemporary animal welfare standards" .
Australia is the sole source of greyhounds at the Canidrome in Macau and the ban, imposed in March last year but only made public at a parliamentary committee in New South Wales last week, explains a drop in greyhound imports to Macau in 2013.
The number of greyhounds imported to Macau from Australia fell by 50 per cent in the first 10 months of last year compared to the same period a year earlier.
Animal welfare groups want the Canidrome closed down because it euthanises all its greyhounds once their short racing careers are over - usually within two to three years of arriving in Macau. Most dogs put down by lethal injection are healthy and five to six years old.
An international campaign by animal welfare groups was launched to close the Canidrome after a 2011 Post Magazine investigation revealed dogs were being put down at the rate of nearly one a day. With no hope of a life after racing, 383 were killed in 2010.