Animal Activists Push to End Hong Kong's "Catch & Kill" Policy
Brennan Browne
(CN - HKG) Animal activists push to end HK's 'catch-and-kill' policy
Posted by: "Dr John Wedderburn" jw...@hkstar.com jwed
Thu May 24, 2012 7:32 am (PDT)
Moderator's note: Dr. John Wedderburn is
being prosecuted in Hong Kong for the same
offence as one of the people (Tulip) in the article below -- sterilizing
free-roaming dogs and returning them to their original location. His trial is
on 30th July.
Time Out
Posted: 22 May 2012
Proposals to de-sex, vaccinate and re-release unclaimed dogs into the
community could be an effective remedy to Hong Kong 's
stray population,
reports Shirley Zhao
Every Saturday afternoon, Carrie Ho Kar-kay brings a bowl of leftover pork
ribs to a narrow street in North Point where she regularly feeds a stray
mongrel she calls Sugar. She usually finds Sugar waiting expectantly in the
shadows of a building, wagging her tail and barking hungrily. Yet today,
Sugar has not shown up. Ho earnestly searches the nearby alleys, but to no
avail. After about an hour, her greatest fears seemed to have been
confirmed.
"Sugar must have been caught by the government," she tells Time Out. "I
just
don't want to imagine her fate. She has no owner. And in Hong
Kong , that
means death."
It is required by Hong Kong law that all dogs
five months or older must be
licensed, microchipped and vaccinated against rabies. For stray dogs without
a licence or microchip caught by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation
Department in response to complaints of being a nuisance, if they are not
adopted within four days they will be euthanised, usually by intravenous
injection. According to statistics from the AFCD, around 10,000 stray
animals were caught last year, of which more than 80 percent were put down.
Condemning this catch-and-kill policy as 'inhumane and ineffective', animal
welfare organizations are calling for the adoption of a 'trap, neuter and
return' (TNR) policy, whereby stray dogs can be captured, de-sexed,
vaccinated and returned to the communities.
"We do not believe that [catch-and-kill] is a humane way of controlling
[the
stray dog] population. It doesn't work, because the remaining dogs will just
breed and fill the gap," says Dr Jane Gray, chief veterinary surgeon of
the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "The key is de-sexing
them
so they have a stable population and limited breeding, and eventually the
population will go down."
However, such a proposal under the current law faces severe difficulties,
because all dogs caught must be licensed and microchipped to a certain
'owner', but very few are willing to take the responsibility in case the
dogs bite people after being returned. The government, in discussions with
animal welfare groups, has rejected to give an exemption to the proposed TNR
programme and insists that all dogs must have a registered owner. Meanwhile,
many people living in communities are afraid the returned strays may bite or
spread disease.
In 2010, social worker Tulip Chan Yam-kwan was accused and eventually fined
$2,500 for failing to keep a 10-year-old dog on a leash (or under control)
after it was found roaming a community. Even though the dog was a stray,
Chan had it vaccinated, licensed and microchipped under her name to save it
from being exterminated, and was thus lawfully deemed the dog's owner.
"It is unfair to have those who take care of stray dogs [to also] take the
responsibility of an owner," says Mark Mak Chi-ho, executive chairman of
the
Non-Profit Making Veterinary Services Society (NPV). "They are just
helping
the stray dogs and protecting them from undergoing unnecessary pain. In a
modern and civilised society, such a regulation is out of date and should be
cancelled."
NPV has been practicing TNR in Wong Tai Sin district since 2009. Mak tells
Time Out that at first neither the neighbourhood residents nor the district
councillors supported the project, yet after a while their views changed.
"In a meeting with local district councillors in 2011, almost all
councillors supported our project," states Mak. "We also conducted a
survey
in one housing estate in Wong Tai Sin, and 80 percent out of 150
interviewees supported TNR."
Li Tak-hong, chairman of Wong Tai Sin district council, says his own
attitude towards TNR has changed over time. "At first our impression of
stray animals was bad and I didn't think TNR would work. But with more
communications with the social workers, we started to understand the whole
process and see positive effects of TNR. It is not only a concept but also
practicable. I absolutely support TNR."
"I find it useless to only talk about the importance of TNR," says
Mak. "To
gain citizens' and the government's support, we need to show them the
effects." According to Mak, although NPV has no exact statistics, the
number
of stray dogs in Wong Tai Sin has 'decreased significantly', because they
are hardly seen in areas once flooded with strays. He also says the
relationship between humans and dogs has become 'more peaceful and
harmonious': "So far, no-one has ever complained to the government that we
return the dogs to their environment."
According to Dr Jane Gray, de-sexed dogs are normally less aggressive and
less likely to engage people aggressively. She tells Time Out that the SPCA
is currently discussing with the government about setting up TNR 'trial
zones' in Lamma
Island 's Lo So Shing and Sai Kung's Ho
Chung village where
carers of stray dogs in the trial programme will be exempted from the
requirement to obtain a dogkeeping licence.
"Really aggressive dogs that we believe are a danger to the people living
in
these communities will not be placed back and will be put to sleep," says
Gray. "The idea is that if you take one dog that's really aggressive out
[of
the community] and de-sex the rest of them, then hopefully you will find
their population and their level of aggression and danger greatly reduced.
"A lot of people are feeding stray dogs, but very few of them are doing
the
de-sexing. Yet one of the points of this programme is that if you feed
animals and if you don't de-sex them, then that will make problems a lot
worse, because feeding the animals and making them healthy [means] they're
going to breed more. No-one at the SPCA will recommend feeding stray animals
without de-sexing them."
But, to start the programme, the SPCA needs to have an agreement from the
councillors of the two districts. A spokeswoman of Sai Kung District Council
says it is 'not a good time' to comment on the issue because the proposed
programme is still under discussion, and the result may come out some time
in June. She also informs Time Out that the response from Ho Chung village
about the project is 'not very positive' - but she's unable to explain why.
Sally Woo, a volunteer who has been participating in a TNR programme on
stray cats since 2003, understands people's concerns. "Many stray dogs are
big and can hurt people," she says. "Cats are different. They are
much
smaller and less aggressive. Nobody's afraid of being bitten by a cat."
Perhaps this lack of fear over being bitten by a cat is why the government
officially approved TNR programmes on felines over a decade ago - and no
licence or microchip is required to return stray cats.
Woo is the carer of stray cats in Causeway
Bay . She says that in
2003 there
were more than 70 stray cats roaming the
Causeway Bay
streets, while now
there are only around a dozen. Woo thinks money has been the main problem
facing TNR programmes. She tells Time Out that she needed to subsidise the
programme when she first joined. "Have you ever heard of this?" she
laughs.
"A volunteer needed to pay to join the programme, $300 for de-sexing one
cat! Of course now they have raised enough money every year.
"The problem is, de-sexing a dog costs even more. How many organisations
are
willing to spend so much money on these animals?" she asks, criticising
some
animal welfare organisations which 'don't actually care about animals'.
"Some organisations do care but, still, money is a problem."
Last year, HK$1.3 million was spent euthanising stray animals. Woo says the
government should spend the money on TNR programmes instead. She asks:
"Why
not spend the money saving animals, instead of killing them?"
Poster's note: I am being prosecuted for the
same offence as Tulip (above) - my trial is on 30th July. This is a gross misuse of the
law! John.
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