According to Municipal Affairs Bureau’s (IAM) statistics issued last week, the bureau euthanised 33 dogs last month – the highest monthly number since 2017.
The figures showed that in the past 10 months the bureau euthanised 113 dogs and 30 cats. According to the IAM statistics, the bureau euthanised a total of 74 dogs and 74 cats last year.
The data also showed that the number of dogs euthanised had been decreasing since 2013, but for the first time in seven years the number has risen this year.
In September, eight local animal welfare and protection groups petitioned the government urging it to adopt the “trap-neuter-release” (TNR) programme to humanely solve the city’s stray problem.
In the same month, Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon was asked by the media whether it’s against the intention of protecting animals if the bureau continues to euthanise the stray animals that were captured and not adopted. Cheong replied that the way the bureau handles strays was justified by its “sufficient basis”, adding that the problem might not be solved by implementing the “trap-neuter-return” approach followed by other jurisdictions.
Earlier this year, Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) President José Tavares told reporters that it would be difficult to recapture strays that underwent the TNR measure for follow-up care, pointing out that even after the TNR procedure the animals would still face hunger, injury, disease, and lack of shelter. He also said that the post-TNR release of strays could have a negative impact on residential communities and the natural environment. Tavares insisted that at that time that the appropriate conditions for implementing TNR in Macau did simply not exist.
