(HK) Animal lovers protest over brutal pet attacks & police inaction

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500 animal lovers protest over brutal pet attacks in Hong Kong

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Nov 12, 2007

 

Hong Kong - Animal lovers in Hong Kong were Monday celebrating the success of a

protest march against what they claim is police apathy towards attacks on pets.

 

Around 500 people holding up banners and giant cardboard cut-out cats and dogs

took part in the demonstration Sunday sparked by a case involving a kitten found

dumped with its rear legs hacked off.

 

The case was the latest in a series of apparently random attacks on stray cats

and dogs in the former British colony which animal rights groups claim police do

not take seriously enough.

 

Protestors say that when they report cases of animal abuse to police, which they

say are running at a rate of around 10 a month, officers tell them they do not

have the resources to help them.

 

Last year, animal lovers were horrified by a series of cases in which newborn

kittens had their legs snapped before being dumped on the streets in Hong Kong's

urban Mongkok district.

 

In April this year, a school chef was jailed for 21 days for killing a

10-day-old kitten by throwing it repeatedly to the ground.

 

The Hong Kong government last year increased the penalty for acts of animal

cruelty from a maximum jail term of six months and a 600-US-dollar fine to three

years in prison and a 25,600-US-dollar fine.

 

Keeping pets is a relatively recent practice in the former British colony where

a generation ago cats and dogs were eaten as a winter dish, but pets have boomed

in popularity in the past 15 years.

 

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Angry animal lovers protest police inaction

Nishika Patel

The Standard

Monday, November 12, 2007

 

Angry animal lovers took to the streets yesterday demanding that police set up a

special team to deal with cruelty to animals.

 

More than 300 protesters and dozens of pet dogs marched from Chater Garden,

Central, to deliver a letter to the government at Lower Albert Road following

police inaction over a brutal animal cruelty case.

 

The incident involved a one-month-old kitten, named Blue Blue, which was found

outside a supermarket at Choi Yuen Estate, Sheung Shui, last Tuesday with its

hind legs chopped off.

 

The Cat Society reported the case to police but they only put it on file.

 

The letter urges the government to pressure the police to take such cases more

seriously.

 

Founding member of the Cat Society Hong Kong, Billie Ng, who has been caring for

Blue Blue, said she wanted the police to open up a proper case on the kitten, as

is the procedure for other criminal cases.

 

" We're angry with the attitude, reaction and the procedure of the police. They

always ignore our reports about animal abuse, " Ng said.

 

" From the start of 2007, they have only taken action on 41 animal abuse cases

when there are more than a 100. "

 

Activists at the march, including Hong Kong Island by-election candidate Ho Loy,

chanted and carried banners that read: " The police and killer are holding hands

and the killer is happy and will be free to kill. "

 

Activists, who were wearing blue ribbons for the kitten, said this was one of

many abuse cases which they had dealt with.

 

Last week, 30 cats were found in Causeway Bay with their heads cut off. There

have also been cases of stray cats being drugged and then taken away.

 

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