Albano Martins: ‘This is the last chance Angela Leong has to save her public image’.
Free translation of Albano Martins article in JTM (Jornal Tribuna de Macau) addressed to Angela Leong
Title: ‘This is the last chance you (Angela Leong) have to save your public image’.
Angela Leong decided to say that she would go forward with a General Association of Animal Protection to “help” her greyhounds, that is, the greyhounds that Canidrome has and which, according to its website, amount to 348 dogs still active, plus those who according to prior agreement between the Club and its owners will be given to the Canidrome.
Today, active dogs will be about 567, so only 219 active dogs are in the hands of other private individuals or companies.
We must add that the greyhounds that are no longer active, under the new animal protection legislation, cannot simply be slaughtered unless they are suffering. Thank goodness for that Law!
Canidrome boss was so unconcerned with that law that she did not realize the consequences of its approval. That is, she hasn’t read the final draft! However, I was told, she has voted against the law for the protection of animals. Which is curious coming from who now wants to create a general association to protect animals!
In total, we will have today perhaps around 650 dogs still alive, of which about three dozen are still puppies that have been born there ….With the blocking of the importation of greyhounds from Australia, and then from Ireland, they have no other choice than breeding them at “home”!
But I think Angela Leong, is not aware of accounts, when she has decided to go to “this charity”. The truth is that the accounts that Canidrome is obliged to publish, are so opaque that not even a single P&L accounts produces. And therefore she does know anything about that business! The balance sheet itself is so synthetic that we can not see how much profit or loss they have every year! A hymn to the opacity and darkness of the business. Who is the fault? Macau is just like that.
Returning to Mrs. Angela Leong, the truth is that for who wants to set up an association to protect these dogs, but starts by saying that ‘greyhounds are made to run and to serve humans’, I think it will not get very far, or better, I think I can easily see where she wants to go!
And I do not think it’s the protection of greyhounds!
If you want my opinion, the question of delivering the greyhounds to Anima is, of course, a matter of their owners, who are private!
I totally agree with her in this matter, but she forgot to mention that the owner of the largest number of greyhounds in Canidrome is Canidrome itself! That omission, deliberated or not, does not pay much in favor of her intentions.
But why Anima wants greyhounds? Mrs. Angela Leong seems that this is very strange!
I take the opportunity to refresh her memory and also the memory of Mr. Lei Chi Man, the executive director of Canidrome, as he knows better than her this type of business. In 2012, Anima asked the help of DICJ to make Canidrome to sit at the table with a single objective, to end the slaughter, which was around 360 greyhounds for year (multiply by 50 years and see how many “martyrs died there “)! We have asked in two meetings only an adoption program, as happen all over the world. Nothing promised was done.
A protocol of cooperation proposed by Anima was not accepted, the first greyhound “offered” by Mr. Lee, as a sign of Canidrome’s good faith never appeared, because, they said, after they have promised, that they had to ask to the owners! Canidrome were, at that time, like today, who had the majority of dogs!
Of course, Canidrome invented a scam adoption campaign, which have sent for adoption, in six years, about seven greyhounds, the first for his own veterinarian, in a ceremony with pomp and circumstance. This greyhound was sent to live in the tiny mezzanine of his little clinic in Taipa, more or less in front of Jockey Club!
Then comes their “music” that those greyhounds are so dangerous that they need a lot of preparation time before adoption. I believe the other six greyhounds were sent to the Kennel. The Government Kennel did the job supposed to be done by the track. Today, three of the seven surviving greyhounds, all of them more docile than any dog I’ve ever known, passed through Anima’s hands!
In conclusion, Anima ended the “negotiations” and, as it could not be otherwise, even due to the international pressures over us, Anima began to lead locally the closing request of Canidrome!
After so many years, fortunately the Government finally decided, after much indecision, in our favor, that is, in favor of the population that lived there, of its own coffers (to keep that concession was a bad business, that Canidrome pays only 25 percent of tax and casinos almost 40 percent), and in favor of the greyhounds that being slaughtered hundreds per year were a shame to the international image of Macau.
Does Ms. Angela think by chance that Anima wants to have a big banquet with those dogs? Or does she think maybe Anima wants to copy the ingenious scheme of winning a million by selling them in public auction, as Canidrome has always done for five decades?
I do not understand that she is not capable to understand why Anima wants to receive the greyhounds! I sleep today, not with a greyhound in my shoe but with lots of greyhounds that come to my mind everyday of my life. It is a “business” that I would like to see far away from my life, that is not allowing me to join my family in Portugal, if at the time I am still alive!
Saving all these dogs is a very complicated task if the Macao Government does not give a hand or shows interest on that. The costs are huge and many adopters or adopter institutions are unlikely to be able to raise enough money to receive them in Europe, a place I believe will absorb most of the greyhounds and give the guaranty that they will be finally okay.
So Mrs. Angela Leong does not know where she’s going. For me, I really think she knows nothing of the business! But Mr. Lei knows very well what I am saying, or rather, what I am writing, if he reads Portuguese!
If these greyhounds are not delivered to Anima, and this will only happen if the Macau Government does not act giving a helping hand, then they will be exported by Canidrome or by the company or association that they intend to create, as Macao has no capacity to absorb them. There are no business man that wants to support the keeping of so many dogs!
The reason is simple, who finances the costs? This is an activity that does not produce money, on the contrary, if is a charity activity. I do not see a businesswoman, like Mrs. Leong, stuck in it for the beautiful eyes of her greyhounds!
Therefore, if they are not delivered to Anima, they will either be exported by the company or exported by an “association”. Of course it is much more “clever” if they are exported by an association created for that purpose. It hides better the sale business. For a company used to buy greyhounds for selling, it does not even occur to me that this is not her final business!
Conclusion, Ms. Leong, please be quiet! Do not waste so much of your precious time, that could be devoted to your gaming industry, better look for who is setting your casino on fire, and leave the dogs with me. I promise you that I will treat them well and I guarantee you will not regret it.
This is the last chance for you to save your public image!
Albano Martins Source:A última chance que tem para ficar bem na fotografia