What do you think of the SPCA's proposal on children owning pets?
I write regarding the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' suggestion that nobody under 16 years of age should buy or adopt a pet. At Hong Kong Dog Rescue (HKDR) the minimum age is 21.
Even at that age, young people can never really know what the next 15 years (the average lifespan of a dog) will hold. Adoption of a pet should be a family decision and a commitment for the lifetime of the pet. Animals should never be given as gifts.
As with all other animal welfare organisations, HKDR receives many calls every day from people wanting to give up their dogs. In almost every case they took on the dog without a thought for the future, but for short-term enjoyment.
Many of the dogs that end up at HKDR have been passed from home to home before being finally abandoned. We are told they have behavioural problems when in fact they are just dogs that are without security or structure in their lives.
Many have spent their entire lives locked in small cages, with absolutely no regard given to the torture this is for an intelligent animal.
Cruelty is much more than just beating a dog or starving it to death. Cruelty is also never taking a dog for a walk, wheeling it around in a doggie pram, and going out to work for 10 or more hours a day and leaving a dog on its own, muzzling it tightly to stop it barking.