The Macau Jockey Club (MJC) closed down on April 1 last year and is set to return its vast site in Taipa to the government at the beginning of next month – and the MJC and ANIMA Macau co-hosted a cat adoption event at the MJC site in Taipa to find new homes for the company’s “working cats” there, during which ANIMA President Zoe Tang Tinna told the Post that the public’s response has been very positive, with a total of 22 cats adopted yesterday.
Last month, volunteers organised a four-day adoption event for 10 of the felines at the Macau Jockey Club, as the MJC is required to return the site to the government by the beginning of next month. It was revealed on Thursday through a social media post that the MJC would completely close down its presence at the site at the end of this month, with over 100 mousers* still on the site and that the MJC planned to rehome all of them in the mainland.
The Facebook post sparked significant public debate online, with many netizens using various channels to voice their opinions and seek assistance, including contacting lawmakers and TVB’s information programme “Scoop”, in the hope of stopping the MJC from transporting the cats to the mainland. Among those responding was former Hong Kong celebrity Mary Jean Reimer, now a solicitor, who offered to temporarily take in all 100 unadopted cats from the MJC.
Reimer, also known as Yung Jing Jing (翁靜晶), is a Hong Kong solicitor and actress. She has American-Chinese-Vietnamese ancestry.
On Friday morning, the Macau Jockey Club issued its first press release on the issue, stating that it had actively fulfilled its social responsibility to properly handle the cats at the racecourse, including providing long-term rehousing and care for the cats in Zhuhai. Concurrently, Macau’s Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) also released a statement indicating that it had been following up on the transfer and rehousing of all the animals at the Macau Jockey Club’s venues since April last year, noting that it had carried out health quarantine measures for the cats, including microchip implantation, rabies vaccinations and clinical examinations, as well as arranging the necessary health certificates for “exporting” the cats to assist with customs clearance.
In the statement, the bureau also said that it was pleased to see that the Macau Jockey Club had de-sexed all the cats and made proper arrangements for them.
Cats stopped from leaving Macau
The matter then further heated up, but at about 5 p.m. on Friday the Post received a call from ANIMA saying that, after coordination with the Macau Jockey Club and the Municipal Affairs Bureau, the controversial transfer of the cats to the mainland had been suspended. Instead, the cats would be taken in by several animal protection groups in Macau. Additionally, an adoption day would be arranged for the public on Sunday, i.e., yesterday, and that all cats unable to find an adopter would be cared for at a location provided by Reimer.
At about the same time, the Macau Jockey Club announced in a press release that it had reached a consensus with ANIMA to co-organise the adoption activities. The MJC further revealed that it had contacted several local animal protection organisations to discuss further options and had conducted adoption activities to find suitable homes for the mousers. However, it added, some adoption cases proved ultimately unsuccessful due to health or behavioural problems, as some of the cats found it difficult to adapt to a home environment. The MJC also emphasised that since announcing the closure of its horse-racing operations, it had been providing necessary medical care, including trapping, desexing, microchipping and vaccinating the cats under the guidance of the Municipal Affairs Bureau to ensure that all of its felines would be able to live in a healthy and safe environment, with detailed reports submitted to the bureau on a monthly basis.
22 cats adopted yesterday
The adoption campaign started at 10 a.m. yesterday and ran until 6:30 p.m. Prospective adopters were required to bring valid identity documents and proof of address, along with photographs of their flat’s windows showing installed window screens. After completing the registration procedures on-site, they could take the cats home.
A local woman, surnamed Che, was the first to adopt one of the cats during yesterday’s campaign. She said that it was not the first time for her to have a cat: “Originally, I had two cats at home, but one of them passed away due to old age, leaving me with an eight-year-old cat that was feeling quite lonely. When I learnt that the MJC was facilitating cat adoptions, I decided to come and look for another cat, hoping to be lucky enough to find one so I could once again have two cats at home”.
As the Post witnessed inside the Macau Jockey Club, the adoption place was still bustling at 1 p.m., with many parents bringing their children to look for their favourite cats. The waiting area was crowded, and potential adopters walked around the dozens of cages, eagerly waiting to choose their preferred cats.
Speaking to the Post on the sidelines of the campaign, ANIMA President Zoe Tang said that the cats that had already been adopted include both adult cats and kittens, some of them younger than one year, the youngest aged about four to five months. The 22 cats up for adoption yesterday were all relatively docile and suitable for adoption, she added, while some were not suitable for adoption at the moment. She underlined: “But not permanently, but it will take time for them to get used to the new environment”. Zoe Tang added that she would not exclude the possibility of releasing some of them for adoption in due course.
According to Tang, during yesterday’s adoption campaign, volunteers first explained each cat’s condition to potential adopters, including its health and vaccination status. After adoption, the adoptee will be placed under quarantine observation before its registration will be officially transferred from the MJC to the adopter, so as to give the cat a few weeks to adapt to its new home.
There were over 100 mousers at the MJC site, Tang said, adding that through the coordination of various animal protection organisations, five groups have made arrangements to take in a total of 60 cats, with 20 of them currently under the care of ANIMA.
A similar incident occurred back in 2018, when 533 greyhounds used as racing dogs were originally planned to be transferred to the mainland following the government’s resumption of the now-defunct Macau (Yat Yuen) Canidrome site. Both the dog- and horse-racing operations were run by companies headed by gaming executive and lawmaker Angela Leong On Kei.
*Cats that catch mice. Traditionally, a “mouser” refers to a cat, especially one that is skilled at hunting and catching mice. This term is often used to describe barn cats or working cats kept to control rodent populations. – DeepSeek
A potential adopter takes a photo of one of the Macau Jockey Club’s “working cats” awaiting adoption during yesterday’s adoption campaign. – Photo: Yuki Lei
Members of the public wait to see the cats up for adoption yesterday at the Macau Jockey Club in Taipa. – Photo: Yuki Lei
