LATEST ANIMAL NEWS

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) has implemented the Licence Conditions and Code of Practice for cat trading since April 1, to ensure that cats put up for sale by animal traders should be obtained from approved sources and microchipped.

The newly introduced Licence Conditions and Code of Practice were aimed at tightening the control of cats offered for sale by animal traders, to safeguard public health and animal welfare.

Although a positive step forward to protect cats in Hong Kong, there will undoubtably be those who look for loopholes in the law in order to make money, often at the expense of animals. But what should we be looking out for and what can we do?

Courtesy of Eufrosina Liu

A Hong Kong father and son have been arrested for suspected animal cruelty after police at the weekend discovered 39 dogs and two cats held in “extremely poor” conditions in a flat.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said on Sunday it was looking after more than half of the animals and the rest were being cared for by the Agricultural, Fisheries, and Conservation Department.

The SPCA said 24 of the recovered animals were taken to the group’s Tsing Yi centre, where a veterinary team carried out check-ups and provided care overnight. The other 17 animals are being cared for by the department, which said on Sunday night they were now in stable condition, pending further examination.

Māori and Pacific leaders have signed a declaration seeking to grant tohorā, or whales, legal personhood.

He Whakaputanga Moana, signed by Kiingi Tuheitia and Tou Travel Ariki, head of House Ariki in the Cook Islands, aims to give tohorā more robust protections that are recognised internationally.

The declaration also seeks to protect the rights of tohorā to migrate freely, conserve and grow dwindling populations, establish marine protected areas, and use mātauranga Māori alongside science for better protections and set-up a dedicated fund for whale conservation.

Thai customs officials have arrested six Indian nationals for attempting to smuggle dozens of wild animals, including a red panda and cotton-top tamarin monkey, out of the country.

Officers found 87 animals, including monitor lizards, birds and snakes, packaged inside the suspects’ checked luggage at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport. They were trying to fly to Mumbai.

Thailand is one of the world’s major hubs for illegal wildlife smuggling, a multibillion-dollar transnational trade, due to its rich biodiversity, location and infrastructure. Smugglers use Thailand to transit animals to be sold in China and Vietnam, and recent years have seen an increase in trafficking to India.

An unemployed man has been sentenced to four years in jail after he was found guilty of smuggling 440kg (970lbs) of scales from endangered pangolins into Hong Kong.

District Court Judge Clement Lee Hing-nin on Wednesday sentenced Hong Endian, 52, after convicting him of two counts of conspiring to import and possess specimens of an endangered species, in violation of the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance.

The Judge said the court was obliged to send a message to the public that Hong Kong had zero tolerance for smuggling or conspirators complicit in the chain of illegal imports and exports.

Assembly member Steve Bennett (D-38) introduced A.B. 3162, the California Oppose Cruelty to Octopuses, or OCTO, Act, to prohibit octopus farming on land or water and ban the import of farmed octopus in California.

The bill, cosponsored by Animal Legal Defense Fund and Social Compassion in Legislation, positions California as a humane leader on this developing issue, preempting the controversial and cruel industry before it has an opportunity to develop in the state.

In August 2021, Hong Kong took a significant step in strengthening its stance against the trafficking of animal specimens. The statutory basis of the prohibition, found in Parts 2 and 3 of the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance (Cap.586), was further concretised by the extension of Schedule 1 of the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance (Cap.455) to include animal smuggling offences. However, despite legal reinforcements, the spectre of this lucrative trade still looms large. Headlines in Hong Kong’s leading newspapers routinely feature images showcasing the latest million-dollar seizures by customs authorities, underscoring the pervasiveness of the issue.

The following article examines the root causes and existing legal framework governing wildlife trafficking in Hong Kong to explain the overall sense of stagnation in this field. It will also analyse the broader repercussions of the black-market industry on animal welfare. To close, strategies and reforms aimed at fortifying Hong Kong’s defences against this illicit trade will be proposed, drawing on methodologies implemented by other jurisdictions similarly targeted by international smuggling syndicates.

Courtesy of Saskia Sinha

According to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries of South Korea, from 15th December 2023, it became unlawful for public aquariums in the country to purchase new cetaceans for display, as the country revised the law about the management of zoos and aquariums.

In addition to prohibiting local aquariums from acquiring new whales and dolphins for display, these facilities will now be illegal to allow visitors to ride, touch, or feed these marine mammals.

The way Courts in British Columbia decide who gets to keep a family pet after a separation or divorce is changing, as amendments to the province's Family Law Act come into effect. Until now the question of so-called pet custody was settled as part of the division of property. But a new section of the legislation on "companion animals" changes that.

The legislation now provides a list of factors that must be considered when deciding the fate of a family pet.

Those factors are, according to the legislation:

• the circumstances in which the companion animal was acquired;

• the extent to which each spouse cared for the companion animal;

• any history of family violence;

• the risk of family violence;

• a spouse's cruelty, or threat of cruelty, toward an animal;

• the relationship that a child has with the companion animal;

• the willingness and ability of each spouse to care for the basic needs of the companion animal.

After what seems to be a lifetime of advocating for change, it seems the Hong Kong Government is finally prepared to do so. The Hong Kong Government has introduced an amendment bill to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance (Cap.169) in this year's legislative programme.

Proposed amendments include introducing a positive “duty of care” on persons responsible for animals to provide their welfare needs; enhancing the provisions for prevention of animal cruelty, including the increase in the penalties and the introduction of an indictable offence; and enhancing enforcement powers to prevent animal cruelty and protect animals from suffering.

This introduction is welcomed warmly by animal advocates in Hong Kong, especially as we continue to see a spate of animal cruelty cases filling our social media and our news.

A man has been convicted and sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment for smuggling 18 live endangered turtles and three live endangered lizards into Hong Kong.

The verdict was handed down today for violating the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance (Cap. 586) and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance (Cap. 169).

The Ocean Park Conservation Foundation has signed off on an agreement to expand its collection of resident red pandas in the Hong Kong theme park. In addition, the contract extended the loan period for the park’s current three red pandas for a further twenty years.

The Chinese government has a long-established history of sending pandas to other countries on loan; starting for ‘panda diplomacy’ purposes around 1950.

But the terms and conditions of such arrangements, and the policy considerations which drive them, reveal that Mainland China’s furry agenda is not as black and white as it seems.

Courtesy of Saskia Sinha

A drunk man was found guilty of strangling his live-in girlfriend's parrot and was sentenced to three months and two weeks in prison after pleading guilty to cruelty to animals in the Magistrates' Court.

He believed the sentence was too harsh and applied for bail to appeal against the sentence in the High Court. He told the High Court earlier that he suffered from anxiety attacks afterwards, and his girlfriend broke up with him, hoping to change his sentence to a non-custodial sentence.

The High Court judge rejected his appeal saying that the drunken man strangled the parrot to death, and the process must be extreme and excessive. Due to the use of force, the sentence imposed by the lower Court was only at the lower-middle level.

The appeal was dismissed and he was ordered to serve his sentence immediately.

The Victorian government will follow the Australian Capital Territory and could become the first Australian state to recognise that animals are sentient beings, under a draft overhaul of cruelty laws to be released in the coming weeks.

A long-awaited draft of the animal care and protection act will be released for public consultation next month, before a final bill is tabled in parliament in 2024. The new protections are expected to cover more species, including octopuses, squid, cuttlefish, lobsters, crabs and crayfish.

This came six years after the government announced a review of the existing Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, with a view to replace it “with a modern animal welfare act in 2019”. A 2019 parliamentary inquiry also recommended the government modernise the act “as a matter of priority”.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become “one of the top 10 […] public health threats facing humanity.” And while the World Health Assembly launched a global action plan in 2015 to tackle the issue among human populations, equivalent high-level reports examining antibiotic overuse and misuse among animals, particularly domesticated species, are less prolific.

The agriculture industry is a known facilitator of AMR and is generally monitored accordingly, but administration of antibiotics on a smaller scale, such as in backyard farming and pet stores are routinely dismissed as insignificant contributors to the problem. However, it has been shown that pockets within the domestic sector still act as reservoirs for the development of AMR, therefore comprehensive surveillance programmes and frequent inspections are necessary.

Education is undoubtedly at the core of reform. Helping individuals understand how antibiotic overuse and misuse can affect their personal health, public health, and that of animals, and teaching responsible animal husbandry practices, will elicit a shift in attitude. Moreover, tighter regulations must be implemented by national governments regarding access to, and the disposal of, antibiotic medicines. Only through a concerted and consistent international effort can we hope to preserve the efficacy of antibiotics and safeguard the health of both humans and animals.

Courtesy of Saskia Sinha

Hong Kong is seeking to change the city’s wild animal protection laws to raise the maximum penalty for illegal feral pigeon feeding to HK$100,000 and imprisonment for one year. The proposed penalty would take effect next August, subject to approval by the legislature.

The Hong Kong Government published the Wild Animals Protection (Amendment) Bill 2023 , which intends to enhance the deterrence against illegal feeding activities, protect wild animals and improve environmental hygiene.

South Korea is planning to introduce a ban on dog meat consumption by the end of this year, Seoul authorities said.

Eating dog meat is neither explicitly prohibited nor legalized in South Korea, and successive governments have failed to make progress on pledges to stop the practice.

Public and political momentum to outlaw dog meat has been growing in the country as the centuries-old practice has fallen out of favour with most young Koreans. It has also attracted international criticism from international rights activists.

According to a government study last year, South Korea has about 1,150 dog farms and over half a million dogs raised for meat, a significantly smaller figure than decades ago. The declining demand for dog meat reflects a shift in public perception along with growing pet ownership in South Korea.

Hong Kong authorities have opened an investigation into an online trader suspected of selling dog meat, after internet users raised concerns over one of the business’ adverts on social media.

Authorities took on the case after social media users flagged an advert on the Facebook page of a vendor that offered “fresh and delicious” and “high quality” dog meat for HK$328 (US$42) per kilogram.

Norway’s Supreme Court handed down a final verdict that the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel dog breed is too sick and inbred for breeding to continue. They also ruled that the breeding of English bulldogs must fit with new frameworks, with breeding falling outside such frameworks to be illegal.

In Norway, Section 25 of the Animal Welfare Act (2009) clearly states that “breeding shall encourage characteristics resulting in robust animals that function well and avail of good health”. It goes on to specify that breeding cannot happen if offspring will likely have natural behaviour affected or if it could lead to ethical issues.

A one-month-old female puppy "Niu Niu" who lives in a temple in Hong Kong was recently beaten to the point where her skull was sunken, her brain was injured, her jaw was displaced and unable to bite, and she was blinded due to damage to her optic nerve.

Niu Niu is currently hospitalized in the NPV Intensive Care Unit, facing long and painful medical treatment.

On 18 October 2023, in a shocking incident of suspected animal abuse, an owner in Hong Lok Yuen’s residential area made a distressing discovery. While reclaiming their property in the presence of law enforcement officers, they stumbled upon approximately 35 adult mongrel cats left behind.

Upon entering the Hong Lok Yuen residential area, representatives from the cat shelter were confronted with an abhorrent environment, characterized by a thick layer of excrement and urine at the bottom of the cages. They noted that a majority of the cats seemed unwell, displaying unsteady movement, possibly indicating peritonitis, excessive drooling, oral inflammation, and skin problems. HK Cats Adoption revealed that most of the 35 adult mongrel cats had not been sterilized and ranged in age from 1 to 16 years.

It is imperative to consider your own ability and means before making a decision to house or take in any animals. Abandoning animals and letting them suffer because of one’s inability to take care of them is not compassion.

Researchers have gained new insights into the lives and losses of Eurasian otters in Hong Kong, as detailed in a paper published by Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation, published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of international wildlife conservation charity Fauna & Flora.

Hong Kong is one of the world’s busiest metropolises, and the Eurasian otter Lutra lutra is among its most threatened wildlife. Dependence on lowland wetlands makes it particularly susceptible to human disturbance. Moreover, the low-lying region within Hong Kong where most otters can be found has been earmarked for a government-led mega development plan.

By analysing a 131-year longitudinal dataset, the study provides the first long-term longitudinal overview of the distribution and abundance of the Eurasian otter in Hong Kong, revealing that the species was much more widespread and common in historical times.

The study’s findings show a drastic reduction in the range and abundance of Eurasian otters in Hong Kong between 1890 and 2020, and indicate that Hong Kong’s Deep Bay wetlands have always been the critical habitat for the local otter population – insights that have significant implications for conservation efforts.

Not long after the death of the Bryde’s whale in late July, another whale (likely to be a Pygmy sperm whale or dwarf sperm whale) was found in the Hong Kong waters. The last tragedy alerted the Hong Kong citizens and the government to act more promptly to prevent further injury caused to this second whale.

The necropsy team indicated the cause of death of the Bryde’s Whale, which was sighted in late July, was likely caused by the fresh cut in front of the whale’s dorsal fin by ship blades or propellers. Citizens and animal protection organisations blamed the government for its slow response regarding possible actions that could be done to protect the Bryde’s Whale

But the presence of these beautiful animals raises a more fundamental question - are we doing enough in Hong Kong to protect them? If not - what more should be done?

Courtesy of Eufrosina Liu

The Hong Kong Governments policy to ‘control’ the local boar population through culling continues to raise serious questions. The AFCD began euthanising wild pigs in November 2021 after a spike in the number of boars attacking humans and entering urban areas. The policy replaced the Government’s previous tactic of capturing, sterilising and relocating the animals.

A conservative estimate (and based on AFCD published data) indicates that there has been on average one boar killed per day this year - more than twice the number during the same period in 2022.

But it isn’t just local Governmental Departments that are contributing to the decline of the species population. There are more and more episodes of citizens taking matters into their own hands and capturing and killing boars - either through a pack hunt involving dogs or through the use of traps - contrary to the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance, Cap 170.

We have highlighted 4 recent instances of boar’s in Hong Kong, in order to ask the question: what more can we do to protect these animals?

Courtesy of Eunice Lam

Hong Kong’s illegal wildlife trade is flourishing despite the enactment of tougher laws aimed at shutting down syndicates making millions of dollars off endangered species, with local authorities failing to use any of their new powers.

In 2020 and 2021 alone, customs seized more than 676 tonnes of endangered species estimated to be worth more than HK$221 million (US$28.2 million).

This unfortunately is a prime example of Hong Kong and its commitment (or lack thereof) o protecting animals. The introduction of wildlife crime into Schedule 1 of the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, Cap 455 is to be applauded, but there needs to be the reciprocal enforcement and proper use of these extended investigatory powers to stop wildlife traffickers, or else the law becomes wholly ineffectual.

Introducing laws is only part of the solution, proper execution is where the law can have some bite.

Hong Kong police are investigating a case of animal cruelty after a dead cat was found hanging from a tree with a rope around its neck in North Point on Saturday.

According to the force, officers received a report at around 1.20pm and arrived at the North Point Promenade Pet Garden, where they found the brown and white cat hanging from a tree with a blue nylon rope around its neck.

Yet another sad and heartbreaking case of animals being abused in Hong Kong. When will it stop? When will the legislature and AFCD step in to amend Cap 169 to allow for greater protection to animals in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong added two major shark families to a list of endangered animals whose trade in the city will be tightly controlled under CITES regulations.

The city is one of the world’s largest markets for shark fin, which is viewed by many Chinese communities as a delicacy and often served as a soup at expensive banquets.

Its trade is regulated under an international treaty on endangered species that requires export permits proving it was sustainably captured.

A wild sparrow was found by a resident of To Kwa Wan with its wings taped together with kraft tape. After a call for help in a local resident’s Facebook group, the bird was caught and treated by animal volunteers.

The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society estimates based on the sparrow census in May this year that there are about 243,000 sparrows in Hong Kong, a slight decrease of about 10% from last year. Except for rural and commercial areas, the number of sparrows was lower than in the previous year.

On Monday September 11th, the Hong Kong Animal Post Instagram account (@hkanimalnews) reproduced the details of an incident reported to them by a concerned volunteer.

It involved an older man witnessed roaming Shing Mun Reservoir repeatedly shooting at monkeys with rocks using a rustic-looking slingshot. The volunteer further speculated that some rocks did in fact make contact with monkeys before they managed to escape down the mountain.

Chance encounters with wildlife are part and parcel of humans entering their natural habitat. Therefore, the normalisation of violence towards animals in such scenarios is problematic for the creation of a harmonious co-existence. Consistent and uniform application of the law by authorities unto individuals who choose to harm native wildlife is imperative to send a strong message that this type of behaviour will not be condoned.

Courtesy of Saskia Sinha

A 60 year old man who pleaded guilty to one count of cruelty to animals contrary to s 3 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance, Cap 169 for breaking the wings of a wild pigeon, was sentenced to 10 days’ imprisonment.

The pigeon in this case was found to have suffered broken wings, with bleeding coming from its right wing, hair loss, exposure of its skin and open fractures.

Due to the severity of the injuries, the pigeon had to be euthanised.

Courtesy of HKALPO