Every day since, Tang has overseen a big emergency operation to exercise and feed the dogs and keep the kennels inside the Macau Canidrome clean. A call out for help has seen 70 volunteers a day arrive in two shifts. An abandoned greyhound. Credit:Anima "Some volunteers may not have much experience with greyhounds, so they will take the dogs for a walk while the areas are being cleaned," she says. "Senior volunteers feed them and check if there are problems and bring them to the vet if needed. There are at least two vets here every day." But such a large volunteer operation can't continue indefinitely. The greyhounds need a permanent home.

Anima was called in by Macau's Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) on Friday as the bureau announced its patience had run out with Yat Yuen, the company that ran the Canidrome, saying it would be fined under animal welfare laws for abandoning the 533 greyhounds. Despite a warning two years ago that the greyhound track would close on July 21, the company had failed to re-home the dogs. Loading The fine startled Macau's elite circles – the Canidrome is controlled by prominent Macau politician Angela Leong on Kai, the fourth wife of Macau's most famous casino tycoon, Stanley Ho. When Ho retired last month, Leong took over as co-chairman of Macau's biggest and oldest casino company, SJM Holdings. Ho was granted the first exclusive casino licence in Macau in 1962, while the Canidrome opened the following year.

There is no longer any link between the Canidrome and the casinos, but some observers believe the animal welfare fine against Leong's private company may damage her ability to remain involved in the casino business. SJM Holdings declined to comment to Fairfax Media amid suggestions Leong's lawyers were preparing to fight to regain control of the dogs, in order to avoid the penalty. A dog in the Canidrome kennels. Credit:Animals Australia Under animal welfare law, an owner has seven days to reclaim an abandoned animal. This gives a deadline of Friday. But Anima is concerned at the fate of the dogs if they are returned to Yat Yuen.

Anima President Albano Martins has asked the government to instead fund his animal shelter to take care of the dogs at the Canidrome for the rest of the year so it can hire staff, cleaners and organise a proper process for adoption, including to overseas homes. Tang says Anima's dog shelter is already full, caring for 450 medium-sized dogs, so there is no space there. In the rush to try to get rid of dogs, the Canidrome put a form on its website and allowed sales to mainland Chinese without having gained permission to take dogs there, and Hong Kong pet shops where Anima alleges the dogs were later discovered in poor condition. Visitors look on as the greyhounds are exercised on the closed racetrack. Credit:AP At least one dog died, and several have since been brought to Anima's shelter. One greyhound returned by a mainland Chinese buyer was limping from an old racing injury. Tang says the vets who worked for the Canidrome weren't allowed to perform surgery on dogs, they had to recuperate by themselves.

Anima says it has already received 650 completed adoption forms from overseas families after spending two years spreading the message that the Macau greyhounds would need a home. But the next step will be proper vetting of these applications. "We need time," says Tang. Loading On August 1 the Macau government is due to decide who will take care of the greyhounds, and Martins hopes Leong's company doesn't recover them. "[Yat Yuen] had two years to prepare for this and they weren't capable, so how can they be capable in so few days?" he asks.

Animals Australia Chief Executive Glenys Oogjes says "the vast majority of the greyhounds were originally exported from Australia". But it is unlikely they will be returned to Australia because of strict quarantine laws. "It does appear that homes have been offered for most if not all the remaining Canidrome dogs from people in Europe and northern America [USA and Canada] where quarantine processes are less onerous than bringing them back to Australia," Oogjes said. Greyhounds Australasia Chief Executive Scott Parker said the industry group has offered to assist with dogs that are assessed as suitable for re-homing, and was working with an Australian vet who had recently been to the Canidrome. "We remain very keen to see all dogs capable of being re-homed, adopted out to locals, overseas or back in Australia," he said.

The closure of the Macau greyhound racing industry leaves Australia as one of the few countries that continues to allow commercial greyhound racing. A shortlived ban by the Baird Government in NSW was overturned in October 2016 after intense lobbying. A NSW Government inquiry found "systemic animal cruelty", with large numbers of greyhounds being killed. Greyhound Racing NSW expelled and fined two of its members $22,000 in May for exporting 212 greyhounds to Macau in contravention of toughened NSW rules. Greyhounds Australasia banned the export of dogs to Macau in 2014 because of concern over animal welfare standards at the Canidrome.