(HK) Woman calls police over cats 'buried alive'

[Guest guest]

South China Morning Post

By Anita Lam 2007-11-06

 

Woman calls police over cats 'buried alive'

 

 

A cat lover called police to an Aberdeen park yesterday complaining that

cats had been repeatedly buried alive by workers filling in a hole in

the park with rocks and soil.

 

Police officers, flanked by inspectors from the Society for the

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and officers from the Leisure and

Cultural Services Department (LCSD), said they did not find any trapped

cats at the Aberdeen promenade park.

 

But Belinda Liu Shou-chee, a volunteer who has been feeding the stray

cats there every day, insisted she saw cats emerging from the hole when

she last removed the rocks.

 

" Every day I remove the rocks, but the next day they are there again, "

she said. " I am tired and worried. I don't know how many cats have been

suffocated this way. "

 

The teary woman said about 30 cats used to live around the playground,

but one night in July half of them were gone. She said it was not until

later that she discovered rocks had been used to seal the entrance of

the hole many cats lived in.

 

Last Friday, Ms Liu found a new layer of rocks blocking the hole. She

removed some and found cats poking their heads out.

 

Since then she said she had been engaged in a tug-of-war with LCSD

staff, removing rocks they used to block the hole, until yesterday

morning when she again found the rocks blocking the hole and called

police to report missing cats.

 

Ms Liu returned to the scene later in the afternoon to find the niche

completely filled with soil.

 

An LCSD spokesman confirmed the department had ordered the hole filled

in. He said it was necessary to mend the hole but workmen had inspected

it with torches beforehand to make sure no cats were inside.

 

The department said the same thing late last month when a Western

District resident complained a cat was trapped in a hole in a tree staff

had filled in, but three days later, when the LCSD eventually agreed to

uncover the hole, a starving and dehydrated cat was found inside.

 

Under the Pleasure Ground Regulation, anyone who feeds and keeps stray

animals in a public park commits an offence.

 

A spokeswoman for the SPCA, Rebecca Ngan Yee-ling, said the law has

failed to address the fact that even stray animals have a right to life.

" It is not wrong for the LCSD to keep their places clean and in order,

but it would be totally improper if any of its staff do their jobs

recklessly, if not intentionally imposing harm on a life. " She said the

government should promote a scheme that allows stray animals to be

sterilised and returned to the street.