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]