(HK) SCMP: Loophole in pet shop law may encourage amateur breeders

[Guest guest]

South China Morning Post

 

CITY3 | CITY | By Ng Kang-chung 2009-06-29

 

 

 

Loophole in pet shop law may encourage amateur breeders

 

 

 

A loophole in proposed new laws that aim to tighten controls on pet shops

and pet breeders may actually lure amateurs into breeding dogs for sale,

animal rights groups have warned.

 

 

 

Their concerns centre on proposed new licensing conditions under which pet

shops would be able to obtain dogs for sale only from legal importers,

licensed breeders, other licensed pet shops, and private pet owners.

 

 

 

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department says the conditions

aim to ensure that dogs offered for sale at pet shops are from proper,

traceable sources.

 

 

 

But at a seminar on the new measures yesterday, animal rights groups warned

it was almost impossible for the government to monitor how private pet

owners kept or bred dogs, and thus the private pet owners condition could

easily be abused.

 

 

 

David Wong Kai-yan, chief officer of Animal Earth, said that if private pet

owners were recognised as a formal source of dogs for pet shops, his group

foresaw that some commercial breeders would abuse the rules and present

themselves as ordinary pet owners to avoid the trouble and expense of

meeting government licensing requirements.

 

 

 

It will also lure more people to smuggle dogs across the border to make

money, he said.

 

 

 

 

 

Hong Kong Pet Breeders Association chairwoman Sian Wei said the new laws

would be unfair to licensed breeders.

 

 

 

It will encourage amateur breeders to breed dogs for sale to make money, she

said. But we must recognise that pet breeding requires professional

knowledge.

 

 

 

Hong Kong Pet Trade Association president Howard Cheung Sin-ho said the

government should not have focused on pet shops.

 

 

 

Tightening the licence conditions of pet shops has occurred because it is

administratively easier for officials, he said. The crux of the problem lies

with unprofessional breeders. The government should target them.

 

 

 

Legislator Fred Li Wah-ming, chairman of the Legislative Council panel on

food safety and environmental hygiene, urged the department to consider the

concerns.

 

 

 

He said it was unlikely lawmakers would support the new proposals if they

were not changed.

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2009. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights

reserved.