HK: Police criticised after kitten found with legs chopped off

[Guest guest]

South China Morning Post «nµØ¦­³ø

By Danny Mok 2007-11-02

 

Police criticised after kitten found with legs chopped off

 

 

An animal concern group accused police last night of being totally

uninterested in acting against animal abuse after a one-month-old kitten was

found outside a supermarket on Choi Yuen Estate, Sheung Shui, on Tuesday

night with its hind legs chopped off.

 

Elaine Chan Ling-yi, founder of the Cat Society, said she reported the case

to police but they only put it on file.

 

Ms Chan said a pedestrian found the kitten and gave it to a volunteer from

the group who took it to a veterinary clinic in Kowloon City that night. The

vets believed its injuries were caused by a person, she said.

 

The government recently introduced tougher penalties for people who abuse

animals, she said, but law enforcement officers were not taking the issue

seriously.

 

Ms Chan said the kitten, named Lam Lam, was taken to another clinic in Happy

Valley after the first vet expressed reluctance to save the animal because

it faced the suffering of life without hind legs.

 

All four vets whom we consulted said they had never seen such terrible

cruelty ... I've never imagined people here could be so perverted, she said.

 

 

The society frequently saw cases of cats tortured by being sprayed with hot

oil, pierced by fish hooks and held down and bitten by dogs, she said.

 

A vet operated on the kitten last night but its condition was not known.

 

Ms Chan said police made it difficult to report animal cruelty cases.

Usually the police would ask for pictures of cats being tortured or dead

bodies, which is absurd and impossible, she said. Should I just wait until I

see them being killed to get a picture?

 

She said she was discussing with other cat concern groups the possibility of

holding a protest march to call for greater urgency in enforcing laws

against cruelty to animals.

 

Copyright © 2007. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights

reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

A word or two of caution is in order about this case--

 

 

>South China Morning Post ìÏâÿëÅïÒ

>By Danny Mok 2007-11-02

>

>Police criticised after kitten found with legs chopped off

>

>An animal concern group accused police last night of being totally

>uninterested in acting against animal abuse

>after a one-month-old kitten was found outside a

>supermarket on Choi Yuen Estate, Sheung Shui, on

>Tuesday night with its hind legs chopped off.

 

 

The description sounds very much like

what one finds after several very common types of

accident--and that I have found after several

accidents in Quebec.

 

Humane workers, animal advocates, and

shelter veterinarians tend to be oriented toward

responding to instances of deliberate cruelty,

rather than to accidents, so typically misread

the evidence, which in the Quebec cases was

unequivocal because there were witnesses, albeit

too far away to prevent what happened.

 

Common accident #1 is most frequent when

the weather turns cold, & typically involves

young cats who have not yet developed street

smarts. Seeking a source of warmth on a cold day

or night, they crawl into the engine compartment

of a recently parked car and lie down in a manner

that leaves paws or legs or a tail hanging down

dangerously close to the fan blade. When the car

starts again, the cat loses the dangling

extremity.

 

This typically occurs in parking lots at

places like supermarkets, where cars are

restarted before their engines cool off enough to

make the engine compartment no longer attractive

to a cat,

 

Common accident #2 involves cats or

kittens who are hiding in tall grass or bushes,

while someone is working nearby with a cutter-bar

lawn mower or the type of powered foliage cutter

that whirls a short length of nylon cord. The

instinct of many cats & especially kittens is to

hunker down and try to be invisible as the noisy

machine approaches. Usually the machine operator

never sees or hears the cats, who jump up only

at the last moment.

 

Common accident #3 involves steel doors

that close automatically, like the accordion

doors used on the loading docks of many

supermarkets and warehouses. After unloading a

truck, usually the crew chief turns out the

light and closes the door. If a kitten has

wandered into the path of the falling door, this

is what happens. Again, the human whose action

resulted in the accident usually has no idea that

it occurred, having walked on into the main part

of the store to begin shelving the newly arrived

goods after turning off the light and closing the

door.

 

In short, never attribute to malice what

might be attributed to stupidity, or

carelessness, or just plain bad luck.

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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