Hong Kong tries again to ban certain bird species, From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

 

 

Hong Kong tries again

 

Hong Kong banned keeping chickens and ducks as pets,

effective on February 20, 2006, after H5N1 was confirmed in 10 wild

birds of four different species.

Hong Kong tried to ban and cull other bird species kept as

pets when H5N1 first appeared in 1996, killing six residents, but

many people released their pets rather than allowing them to be

killed--which might have spread the disease if any of the pet birds

had been infected.

Doing door-to-door inspections, the Hong Kong Agriculture,

Fisheries and Conservation Department found 42 illegal bird-keepers

with 180 chickens and 57 other fowl in their possession, among the

first 43,600 households visited. They also found 1,000

chickens at an illegal slaughterhouse.

The Hong Kong Health, Welfare, & Food Bureau asked the

Legislative Council to ban live poultry sales by 2009, a goal the

bureau has pursued for more than 10 years. Under a permit buy-back

plan introduced in 2004, 272 of 814 live chicken vendors and 30 of

200 Hong Kong chicken growers have gone out of business, the bureau

said.

 

--Merritt Clifton

 

 

--

Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper

Postal mailing address: P.O. Box 960, Clinton WA 98236 U.S.A.

CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS IS: <ANPEOPLE

Website: http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/ with French and Spanish

language subsections.