An alliance of animal welfare groups from across China has called on the Australian prime minister to stop the export of greyhounds to Macau's track, where healthy dogs are destroyed at a rate of more than one a day when their racing days are over.
A Post Magazine investigation today reveals 383 racing dogs imported from Australia were given lethal injections at Stanley Ho Hung-sun's Canidrome last year. In March, 45 dogs were destroyed at the venue, nearly all of them healthy and no more than five years old.
The greyhounds are imported at the age of two or three, bought for up to HK$50,000 each, and kept within the Canidrome to run in the four-times-a-week races that generate millions of dollars a year in betting revenue. Finishing outside the top three in five consecutive races is a death sentence for a greyhound. Younger dogs are imported at the rate of 30 a month.
Because the track will not allow greyhounds to be taken on as pets after retirement and because of anti-rabies quarantine restricting their re-export to Hong Kong, they have no chance of a 'second life'.
The Animals Asia Foundation, backed by the Humane Society International, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Hong Kong, and 23 other animal welfare groups in China, has written to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard calling for an immediate halt to the export of greyhounds to Macau.
The letter is signed by animal welfare groups in Beijing, Chengdu, Xian, Dalian, Shandong and Guangzhou, which are also concerned over tentative plans to open dog-racing tracks across the mainland.