Dog racing is an underground activity in China, where gambling is illegal, writes CLIFFORD COONANin Beijing
THERE ARE three small venues for racing dogs in China; racetracks would be an exaggeration. One in Shanghai and another in the southern city of Shenzhen, are operational, while a third is under way in Wuhan
The Shanghai facility is at the city’s Wild Animal Park (which is not the zoo) and they refer to what goes on as a “dog racing performance”.
A spokeswoman was reluctant to answer questions, saying only that they had fewer than 100 greyhounds and that they were well kept, before bringing the phone interview to an abrupt end.
Media reports say the park has been importing greyhounds since October, and are paying 20,000 yuan (€2,000) per dog.
Greyhound racing is nothing new in Shanghai – the Canidrome in the French Concession was quite a draw in the 1930s, and even featured monkeys as jockeys.
Chinese officials have been to Ireland to see how things are done, and Bord na gCon has already started talks with one company in Hefei in Anhui province, and plans to explore racing in other cities.
There already is greyhound racing on Chinese soil – the sport is hugely popular in Macau, home to Asia’s only Canidrome.
However, beyond that the sport is very much in its infancy.
While the Chinese love of a flutter is legendary, the big variable in all of this is whether gambling is made legal in China. Chairman Mao’s communists banned all forms of gambling after the revolution in 1949.
However, the authorities do not look likely to legalise gambling anytime soon. They have restricted access to the gambling haven of Macau, because too much local government money was disappearing on the tables there, so they are not likely to make it easier for people to have a flutter in China itself.
Just as it has kept a lid on horse racing, the Chinese government is serious about stopping unauthorised dog racing.
On April 2nd, police in Wen’an, in Hebei province, swooped on a secret dog racing track in a cornfield and arrested 48 people and seized 38 racing dogs, which from photographs look more like whippets than greyhounds, plus more than €5,000 in gambling money.
The race meets were held on the 3rd, 6th and 9th on the Chinese calendar, dates normally associated with dogs because three plus six equals nine, and the words nine and dog are homophones, both pronounced “gou”. This only works in Cantonese, not in Mandarin, but the superstition has gone nationwide.
On July 24th, 2009, police smashed another dog racing ring in Nong’an county, Jilin province, arresting 40 people and seizing 15 dogs.
Also in Hebei province, a small village held regular races over 500m, with the minimum bet about €10, a lot for rural China, before the police swooped.
Suki Deng of Animal Asia said the organisation had written immediately to the Irish Government to protest against plans to export greyhounds to China.
“There are a lot of animal welfare issues, and in China there is no law to protect animals. So we are trying to collect signatures to support us, and then we will write to Irish Government to let them know that, not only Irish people or English people are against this, but that we Chinese also against this brutal racing,” said Ms Deng.
Many online commentators in China find the practice of greyhound racing abominable.
“This kind of game is there to feed a person’s abnormal interests, we should not allow the dogs or racing be successfully imported to China, otherwise it’ll mean bad luck for a lot of dogs in the future,” wrote Xianaier on the Wenxuecity bulletin board.
Another commentator, Lanxiang, wrote: “Even western countries with animal protection laws, the fate of old greyhounds is pretty grim when they retire. So I really cannot imagine what will happen in China because we don’t have these laws here.”
The possibility that the greyhounds might be eaten seems exaggerated. Certainly, as it stands, there are no laws banning animal cruelty or killing animals for food in China, and people have been eating dog meat here for thousands of years. The meat is considered to have medicinal properties and in the northeast, people believe it helps keep the body warm during winter.
The kind of dog meat tends to be from smaller, younger dogs, and you would wonder how Chinese gourmets would feel about eating stringy meat from a knackered greyhound. But some bloggers are worried about this.
Fuwa-new wrote: “I am worried about people selling old, disabled or injured dogs to a dog restaurant. We better save them!”