(CN -HKG) March against animal cruelty

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Monday, January 9, 2006

http://hongkong.scmp.com/hknews/ZZZVSYCKRGE.html

 

Animal lovers win promise of tougher action against abuse

by ANITA LAM

 

The government vowed to step up action to fight animal abuse as

thousands of pet lovers took to the streets yesterday.

 

The protesters brought along their pets and carried pictures of

Bowen, the kitten that died after its legs were ripped off by an

attacker in Mongkok in November. They demanded tougher penalties for

people who abuse animals.

 

Thomas Sit Hon-chung, assistant director of the Agriculture,

Fisheries and Conservation Department, told a public forum in

Causeway Bay yesterday the government was still reviewing the law by

studying overseas cases, but more manpower had been deployed to

inspect construction sites where negligence or cruelty to animals was

common.

 

Animal welfare advocates say the review is not proceeding quickly

enough.

 

" It has been seven years since we proposed amending the legislation

to provide stiffer penalties for animal abusers, or to obtain

enforcement authority for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty

to Animals if the government did not have enough resources. But until

today none of our requests have been answered, " said Rebecca Ngan Yee-

ling, the society's communications manager.

 

According to the department, 18 animal abusers were prosecuted in the

past two years, of whom 16 were convicted. " Actually a lot of these

cases involve negligence on the owners' part, such as forgetting to

provide them with food and water rather than deliberate cruelty to

their pets, " Dr Sit said.

 

He said the policy that required all dogs to be implanted with an

electronic chip to help identify their owners had reduced the number

of abandoned dogs that were destroyed.

 

In the past few years, the number of cats and dogs destroyed annually

was between 8,000 and 9,000, down by almost half from about 15,000

cases in 1993 and 1994.

 

Last Wednesday police arrested a man suspected of abusing the

kittens. If found guilty he could face a fine of up to $5,000 and a

six-month jail term.

 

 

Animal Earth founder David Wong Kar-yan urged the maximum penalty for

cruelty to animals be increased to a $50,000 fine and imprisonment of

five years.

 

Should penalties for cruelty to animals be increased? Send your

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