Australian greyhounds face horrible fate in Macau

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Australian greyhounds face horrible fate in Macau

By Natalie O'Brien

Hundreds of Australian greyhounds are being exported every year to racetracks in Macau and mainland China, where they face mistreatment, abuse and death.

Documents obtained under freedom of information rules by international lobby group Grey2K have revealed NSW is the biggest exporter of the dogs, sending more than 110 in just four months, with most of them under two years old.

Race for survival: The Canidrome greyhound racing stadium in Macau.

Race for survival: The Canidrome greyhound racing stadium in Macau.

The group's president, Christine Dorchak, has written to the federal government calling for a ban on the live export of Australian greyhounds because of the likelihood they will be mistreated and killed if they were considered not good enough.

The Sun-Herald has reported thousands of submissions were sent to the state parliamentary inquiry into the greyhound industry, many of which raised issues of animal welfare, including the use of live animals as bait and the disappearance of thousands of puppies every year.

Brooklyn, who has not been seen since May last year.

Brooklyn, who has not been seen since May last year.Credit: Brianne Makin

Ms Dorchak, who is from the US, said hundreds of greyhounds exported to the Macau Canidrome racing stadium had disappeared.

''No Australian dog survives the Canidrome,'' she said. ''Once their usefulness subsides due to injury or age, there is no safety net, no adoption program and no way out for these dogs … Clearly, Australian greyhounds need protection, and the Chinese policy of summarily killing dogs after racing cannot meet your country's humane standards.''

Among the greyhounds is an Australian dog named Brooklyn, who has not been seen since suffering an injury in May last year. The Macau government says Brooklyn, who would have turned five last week, is still alive, but Ms Dorchak said a petition with 28,000 signatures had been sent to the Chief Executive of Macau, Dr Fernando Chui Sai On, asking for the dog to be sent back to Australia.

Greens NSW MP John Kaye, who is deputy chairman of the inquiry, said Australian governments and greyhound authorities had washed their hands of the welfare of dogs exported to Macau, despite overwhelming evidence of brutality there.

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Dr Kaye said any ''reasonable regulator'' would have shut the export trade until the Macau government adopted the draft animal rights protection bill it abandoned in 2008.

''Instead, the Australian government and industry allow an animal welfare disaster to continue unimpeded by pressure from the main source of its dogs,'' he said.

Statistics published for the past year show almost 400 greyhounds were ''culled'' in Macau because they failed to win enough races. Those that survived are reportedly kept in pens with little or no opportunity for exercise or socialisation with other dogs.

The peak national body for the industry, Greyhounds Australasia, held a formal review last year into its approach to live exports including the development of a set of standards for countries importing Australian greyhounds, but it has sat on the results of the inquiry for a year.

Greyhounds Australasia has refused to comment on whether the review was finished and did not return calls to Fairfax Media.

Dr Kaye said that by refusing to release its own review of the live export trade, Greyhounds Australasia was complicit in the cover-up of the cruel fate that awaited Australian dogs sold into Macau.

''The industry body has been suppressing the report for a year, during which this country has continued to allow greyhound exports to countries that fail to meet even minimal animal welfare standards,'' he said.

''It suits the worst elements of the greyhound industry in this country to maintain an unregulated export trade to Macau. Not only do they have a market where they can dump dogs that don't win races, but Australian wastage rates are artificially suppressed by outsourcing more than 280 deaths a year to Macau.''

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