About a dozen residents yesterday petitioned the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) and Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP) over “lost dog” Blue.
The petitioners first went to the SAFP premises in Rua do Campo, after which they went to the CCAC headquarters in Dynasty Plaza. The petitions were handed to an SAFP and CCAC representative respectively.
One of the petitioners, Chau Mon I, told The Macau Post Daily in a phone interview last night that the case began when the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) captured a stray black dog from a graveyard.
According to Chau, several volunteers from an ad hoc animal protection group saw the dog at the Municipal Kennel in Avenida do Almirante Lacerda. One of the volunteers, surnamed Tam, took a liking to the “cute” dog and paid a few thousand patacas to adopt him and “save him from the bureau”. Chau added that according to the Animal Protection Law [Article 15- 6], the pet owner or adopter needs to pay the amount IAM spent to take care of an animal. Chau added that if animal protection groups want to save an animal prior to adoption, they have to pay the fee too.
Chau did not elaborate on when and exactly where the dog was captured.
Chau said after “saving” the dog, now named Blue, from the kennel, Tam took him home but as Blue was unfamiliar with his new house he ran away.
According to Chau, Tam reported Blue missing on November 9, adding that the next day one of Tam’s friends claimed to have seen Blue at the Municipal Kennel in cage No.3. However, Chau said that when Tam’s friend told IAM staff that the dog belonged to her friend, the staff said as the dog did not have a microchip it would be put up for adoption. Chau said that only when she and Tam saw that Blue had not been put up for adoption during the seven-working-day adoption period both began to suspect that IAM staff might have euthanised Blue.
The Municipal Affairs Bureau said in a statement last month that the black male dog that Tam claimed to be his was not microchipped. The statement also said that after the vet’s assessment, the black male dog was “aggressive” and “not suitable for adoption”. The statement stressed that Tam’s dog and the dog that the bureau had caputed looked similar, but the latter did not belong to Tam, as he had said that Blue was microchipped. The bureau pledged to help Tam find his lost canine.
During last night’s phone interview Chau raised the question that if Blue wasn’t suitable for adoption then why didn’t the IAM staff find Blue “aggressive” the first time they captured him but found him “aggressive” the second time they captured him? Chau urged the CCAC and SAFP to “find out the truth” about Blue. She declined to elaborate on the content of the petition, saying that it was confidential.
Chau also stressed that the incident showed that animals should not be euthanised based on just one person’s decision. Chau added she hoped that the government would reconsider launching a Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) programme or cooperate with animal protection groups to help stray animals instead of killing them.
Blue’s owner Tam (front, third from right) and Chau Mon I (front, second from right) and fellow animal lovers pose before handing their petition to a representative of the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) at Dynasty Plaza in Nape.
Photo provided by Chau Mon I
