(CN) Macau horse slaughter exposed

[Guest guest]

Report by Ella Lee

Photos by Antony Dickson

Sunday Morning Post - June 16, 2002

 

Three hundred Macau racehorses have been destroyed by a bullet in the head

in the past year - many of them simply because they are no longer performing

to their owners' satisfaction. The killing has been condemned as inhumane

by animal welfare activists.

 

Owners have criticized the Macau Jockey Club for failing to provide proper

retirement facilities and for not having adequate links with other countries

to receive horses which no longer race. But the club says it has no option

but to destroy the horses because of a lack of facilities and funds to

maintain the ones that do not win.

 

Shooting replaced lethal injection a little more than 12 months ago. At

HK$27.50 a bullet, it is half the price of an injection. The club, based on

Taipa Island, stages weekly " shoots " in which an average of six to eight

horses are disposed of every Thursday morning. It admits many of those

horses are healthy and could have enjoyed a happy retirement on farms.

Officials say they will start improving " peripheral facilities " for retired

horses in future.

 

A Sunday Morning Post team witnessed a killing session last week when five

horses were shot by a vet with a 0.32 calibre pistol near the club's west

gate. The carcasses were then loaded on to a truck and taken to a landfill

on Coloane before being dumped in an area marked " construction waste " .

 

Animals welfare activists are angry that the club, chaired by casino mogul

Stanley Ho Hung-sun, does not use more of its cash to find a better

solution. It made a $40 million profit in 2000. Retired horses immediately

become the club's property and the club is responsible for them.

 

Medical doctor and chairman of the Asian Animal Protection Network John

Wedderburn

said the investigation showed the " unpleasant underbelly " of the racing

industry. " It is a callous disregard and exploitation of the lives of these

beautiful animals, " he said. Dr Wedderburn also voiced concerns that the

shootings could traumatize other horses. " They can see death and smell the

blood that is inhumane, " he said. " The Macau Jockey Club should try to cut

the surplus of horses. " The problem needs to be solved at the beginning,

not at the end by killing the horses. "

 

The Hong Kong Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals also

condemned the practice. It plans to appeal to Macau Chief Executive Edmund

Ho Hau-wah to improve animal welfare in the enclave. Society chief

executive Chris Hanselman said: " We question why so many horses have to be

put down regularly by the Macau Jockey Club. "

 

The club has 1,050 racehorses taking part in 110 races a year. It imports

about 300 each year, meaning the same number of horses have to retire. Some

horses are as young as four years old and perfectly healthy when they are

killed.

 

When first contacted by the Sunday Morning Post, the club's senior

information manager, Miranda Choy Pui-kwan, said it used only lethal

injections to destroy horses. It was not until the Post revealed that it

had taken pictures of the shooting that the club's senior veterinary

surgeon, Dr Martin Wainscott, admitted the method used. He also admitted

that most of the horses destroyed were " generally healthy " and could have

lived long lives on farms.

 

The club is working on plans to send horses to Australia and New Zealand,

but progress has been slow. Macau's two riding schools can take care of

only 29 horses. Dr Wainscott said he and other vets at the Macau Jockey

Club were frustrated with the routine killings. " Certainly, it is a very

unpleasant job but we have a difficult situation. We are doing our best, "

he said. Dr Wainscott said both shooting and injections were methods

approved by international veterinary associations to put down horses. The

Hong Kong Jockey Club said it used only injections to destroy injured horses

and most animals were retired to riding schools or overseas farms. It

provides $40,000 allowances to owners to export their horses for retirement

overseas.

 

Cheng Ming-leung, chairman of the Macau Racehorses Owners' Association, said

most retired horses were destroyed. " We do not have much choice in Macau.

There are not enough facilities for retired horses and many owners do not

want to spend $2,000 a month to keep a horse in the riding schools, unless

it has won him a lot of money. "

 

A former arrangement in which the club sent retired horses back to Guangzhou

ended last year after the races there stopped. Ms Choy said a plan to build

a bigger area for horses in Coloane had been shelved for financial reasons

after Hong Kong banned offshore betting this year. " In the past, we have

concentrated on improving our racing standards. We have started improving

facilities for retired horses, " she said.

 

Macau horse owner Eddie Li Shing-ip said he had been asking the club to ship

his three retired horses to Australia for retirement. His request was

rejected on the grounds that there is no quarantine arrangement between

Macau and Australia.

 

 

A bullet 'kinder than an unknown fate'

 

A senior Macau Jockey Club veterinary surgeon who shoots healthy horses says

giving them a quick death is better than " washing my hands " by sending them

somewhere with a poor standard of care.

 

Dr Martin Wainscott said he felt bad about killing horses but had no choice.

He and the club's five other vets are on rotation to carry out the weekly

killings. " Certainly it is not a pleasurable job to do. We don't like

doing it, but it is a job that has to be done, unfortunately. Shooting is

more unpleasant for humans, it is more a human problem than a horse

problem, " he said.

 

Dr Wainscott, from New Zealand, said his team used bullets to destroy horses

because they killed instantly and painlessly. Horses were heavily sedated

before being shot, he said. Dr Wainscott conceded the majority of retired

racehorses in Macau would be put down even though they were " generally

healthy " . And even though some had injured joints and bones, they could

have enjoyed an extended life with suitable management, he said.

 

A horse can live for more than 20 years. But animals as young as four are

being put down in Macau once they are abandoned by owners. " We are very

constrained by geographical considerations. Macau just has no open and

farming area. The alternative is to send them to China en masse and lose

control of them, but we are not prepared to do that. " You just don't know

the conditions there, they could be tied to a tree and left there for the

rest of their lives, " he said. " I would prefer doing what I am doing than

washing my hands [of the problem], sending them back to China and telling

myself I am not going to think about them any more. It is a difficult

situation, but we are doing the best we can.

 

" We are happy to do whatever we can, but there are responsibilities on the

people who own the horses, their horses. "

 

Dr Wainscott said there were very limited facilities in Macau to take care

of retired horses. The Jockey Club riding school on Taipa can take care of

about 20 and another small riding school on Coloane takes only six. The

demand for pleasure riding in Macau is too limited to support another riding

school.

 

Last year the club built a home for injured or sick horses that can house up

to 40 animals which have the potential to recover. Horse owners can enjoy

50 per cent discounts on horse maintenance fees there. It normally costs an

owner $12,000 per month to keep a horse.

 

The club also sends about 30 horses to a riding school in Guangdong province

every year and has been making efforts to establish links overseas so that

retired horses in Macau can be sent there. However, the progress is slow.

 

Dr Wainscott said: " We can import horses from places all over the world but

unfortunately, those countries control the situation if we want to export

horses. Now we have protocols with the EU (European Union) and the United

States. " We are also trying New Zealand and Singapore, Australia, however,

has the most rigid importation requirements in the world. We are on the

waiting list. "

 

Some staff at the Jockey Club are disgusted by the shootings, but they

remain silent. " Everyone here knows about it, they know it is wrong but

they just pretend it does not happen. My colleagues and I are very

frustrated, we all love horses, " one source said. " No one dares speak a

word about it, they fear losing their jobs. But it is time to the public

knows

about it. Why can't the Macau Government do something to stop this? You

cannot just kill an animal after finishing with it. The club should find a

nice place for the retired horses, " the source said.

 

Another source said he had grown used to it. " Horses owners are not willing

to keep these horses. They cannot win races, what can we do? "

 

 

Shameful slaughter

Opinion - Sunday Morning Post June 16, 2002

 

Today's report on the treatment of unwanted racehorses in Macau makes

harrowing reading for even the hardest-hearted.

 

Anyone who has watched a racehorse in action must surely recognize the

beauty, grace and splendour of such remarkable beasts. What contrast then

is this image of the racehorse with the pitiful end that so many of these

animals meet every month in Macau. What a contrast it is too with the

money, the glamour and the thrills that are equated with horse racing in

this part of the world.

 

It is unhelpful to apportion blame. After all, Macau does not have

appropriate facilities to cope with so many unwanted horses. Nevertheless,

the sight of racehorses, some in their prime, being led to meet their death

by a bullet through the head is disgusting. For the vets who carry out such

a task, the killings must be abhorrent and strike at the heart of what they

are trained to do.

 

And yet the method of killing these animals, although shocking, is not

really the issue. What matters is the fact that no provision has been made

by either the Macau Jockey Club or the horses' owners to cater for horses

that are healthy but uneconomic.

 

In Hong Kong the Jockey Club, to its credit, maintains that only injured

horses with little hope of recovery are executed, and then by lethal

injection. In cases of retiring horses, owners are provided with allowances

of $40,000 towards the cost of shipping a horse overseas and giving it a

decent retirement. It seems that no such provision has been made in Macau.

 

Certainly, the Macau Jockey Club, with its $40 million annual profits, is

not the same league as Hong Kong in terms of revenue. Nevertheless, it

should be incumbent on the club to organize a proper and civilized means of

retiring unwanted horses.

 

Perhaps, too, pressure should be put on owners, who, in the main, are

relatively wealthy individuals, to do more to care for horses whose only

crime is their inability to win their owners sufficient money to cover their

keep.

 

One vet interviewed by the Post, Dr Martin Wainscott, makes the point that

he would rather shoot the horses than send them to the mainland and an

unknown fate. His sense of responsibility is commendable; but it is not a

solution. Simply put, it should not be beyond the resources of the Macau

Jockey Club and wealthy horse owners to devise a means of avoiding the

slaughter that is revealed today and which shames the racing industry of

Macau.

 

[Note: Above figures are in Hong Kong dollars. HK$7.8 = US$1]