(HK) Life-saving vets frustrated at being turned into killers

[Guest guest]

South China Morning Post

http://hongkong.scmp.com/ZZZS6PXSNVC.html

Wednesday, January 2, 2002

by ELLA LEE

 

A vet has described how heartbroken she feels when giving fatal

injections to healthy cats and dogs abandoned by their owners.

 

Dr Margaret Bradley, chief veterinary surgeon to the Society for the

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said she always apologised to animals on

the operating table before putting them down.

 

" I look into their eyes and say 'I'm sorry' and tell them I do not

want to do it and I do it just because we do not have any other option. "

 

Dr Bradley said she and some of her colleagues were deeply frustrated

with their work and this discontent had spurred the change in policy of the

society, which will stop putting down healthy cats and dogs in June.

 

" We are trained to save lives, not to kill. I have been working here

for 10 years but I still cry when I have to put those animals to sleep, " Dr

Bradley said.

 

She said overseas studies showed that people working in animal

shelters were often driven to depression and alcoholism because they had to

take innocent lives.

 

" Society makes me angry. The situation is intolerable. Some people

just want puppies, so once they grow up, they don't find adult dogs cute any

more and they dump them and buy a new one.

 

" Owners should be more responsible and they have to realise that

keeping a pet is for life. Dogs can live eight to 12 years. It is a

long-term commitment. "

 

Dr Bradley said the Government should make it harder for people to

keep and breed animals. " In Hong Kong, it is too easy for people to buy pets

in pet shops and there are no restrictions on breeding either. "

 

Her most depressing day came in 1997, when public housing tenants were

meeting a deadline to dispose of their animals to avoid being evicted from

their flats under a Housing Department directive.

 

She said the society was flooded with hundreds of animals and many

owners wept while saying goodbye to their pets. " We think the Government

should allow people to keep small dogs, for example, those weighing under

5kg. With proper training, dogs will not bark at night. "

 

The society will continue to lobby the Government and some private

housing managements to let tenants keep pets.

 

From June, owners will have to undergo counselling or training courses

before they can give up their pets.

 

The society will draft detailed plans on how to help owners with

genuine problems, such as those who cannot take their pets to new homes

overseas.

 

In the past two months, dog owner Kong Chung-ching has been wondering

where to settle his six-year-old dachshund, Be Be. Mr Kong, who lives in a

home ownership scheme estate at Siu Sai Wan, was asked to stop keeping Be Be

by the estate management because dogs are prohibited on his estate.

 

" I first contacted the SPCA and staff there told me that Be Be is a

bit old and the chance of adoption is very small. So even if I give Be Be to

them, they will probably put her down.

 

" I put Be Be's picture on some Web sites for adoption. I feel so sad

to let her go. She has been a good dog and our whole family loves her so

much. "

 

The Hong Kong SPCA's decision to stop putting down healthy animals

follows the San Francisco SPCA's " no-kill " movement, which aims to stop

killing homeless cats and dogs.

 

The San Francisco society guarantees to find a home for all the city's

adoptable cats and dogs that are healthy and free of serious behavioural

problems. Each year, the organisation says it saves thousands of dogs and

cats that need medical or behavioural treatment before they are ready for

adoption.

 

Animals are put down only if they are too sick to be rehabilitated or

too aggressive to be placed safely in a home.

[Guest guest]

<JEsther

<john

Thursday, 03 January, 2002 07:26

Re: (HK) Life-saving vets frustrated at being turned into

killers

(private communication - forwarded with permission)

 

> are they doing anything to stop the torture of dogs and cats for food.

> German Shepherds are often used and they are amongst the most

> loyal, intelligent animals. These animals could help the handicapped,

> the blind, the sick, the police, search and rescue personnel, as well

> as being a loyal companion. Isn't this better than torturing them for

> food and fur. Please educate the Asian people. They're missing out

> on so much by adhering to ancient and barbaric practices.

My strategy for Asia on these issues is to concentrate on making my own

home - Hong Kong - a model city. If it can be demonstrated that humane

methods of population control can work here, then there is a good chance

of them being copied in other Asian cities.

German Shepherds are not often eaten. They are used mainly as guard dogs.

For example photos, see: http://www.aapn.org/zigongmarketphot.html

Animals Asia Foundation's Doctor Dog and Detective Dog programmes are

designed to raise the status of dogs. http://www.animalsasia.org/

The only strategy that I can see that will work for the Korean meat dogs is

for everyone who is against dog eating to become vegetarian. Unless you

were brought up in a Western society it is very difficult to understand the

rationale for eating pigs while condemning the eating of dogs.

John.