To reduce the long-term overcrowding of animal shelters of the municipal kennels and to better safeguard animal welfare, the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) will build more animal enclosures by means of modular construction, increase the shelter space and add ancillary facilities for veterinarian care, office and backup by reorganising the facilities and equipment of Coloane Municipal Kennel. After the facilities come into use, the overall shelter space for animals of the municipal kennels, including Macao Municipal Kennel, for dog and cat enclosures will be increased by about 45 per cent.

Currently, there are a total of 75 dog enclosures and 46 cat enclosures in Macao and Coloane Municipal Kennels. Considering hygiene and safety, each animal should be kept individually in principle as it is not suitable to keep different animals together in one enclosure. However, due to limited space, a total of 135 dogs and 76 cats are sheltered in Municipal Kennels currently. Overcrowding has become an issue for a long time, and it has been difficult to allocate enclosures by animal size, sex, health condition and other special needs, affecting the sheltered animals to a certain degree.

To more effectively and timely alleviate the long-term overcrowding of shelters and to optimise the ancillary facilities of the kennels, IAM used the location which was originally the car park of the Coloane Municipal Kennel to build more animal shelters by means of modular construction, adding 35 enclosures and 20 cat enclosures and increase veterinarian care and surgery, office and backup ancillary facilities. After the facilities come into use, a total of 110 dog enclosures and 66 cat enclosures will be available in Macao and Coloane Municipal Kennels and the overall shelter space will be increased by about 45 per cent.

Multiple factors such as protection against wind, fire and water and insulation have been taken into account and the facilities of the new animal enclosures have been adjusted and optimised to reach the standards of animal enclosures. The enclosures are all equipped with mechanical ventilation and cooling and warming equipment to ensure they are ventilated and the temperature and humidity are controlled. High-density materials with fewer joints are also selected for the floor and walls to facilitate the routine washing, brushing and disinfection, so as to keep the environment clean. Considering the dog enclosures are mainly used for sheltering medium to large mongrels, each dog enclosure has an area of about 3.5 square metres and divided into indoor and outdoor activity space to suit the activity needs of the dogs. The cat enclosures are equipped with modular cages with an area of about 0.8 square metres each. Panels are placed inside the cages to increase the vertical activity space and to separate the living space from the cat litter space, so as to accommodate the natural needs of cats.

After the new animal enclosures of the IAM Coloane Municipal Kennel come into use, the existing animal shelter space and hardware ancillary facilities and equipment will be further optimised and the environment of the shelter of local stray animals will be continuously improved. Meanwhile, IAM also hopes that through continuous promotion and education efforts, the community will become more concerned about the health and welfare of stray animals and the public’s awareness of animal protection will be increased.