Pet dog that bit maid not licensed, say authorities
The pet dog that mauled a Filipino domestic helper during her first week of work with a Causeway Bay family was unlicensed, authorities revealed yesterday.
The one-year-old dog had not been implanted with a microchip, had not been licensed and it was unclear if it had ever been vaccinated against rabies, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said.
The department was unable to say where the mixed-breed animal had been bought.
But it did say the helper, Lilibeth Tumaca, who was bitten by the dog multiple times on December 29, had a low risk of having rabies.
The dog, named Lucky, was surrendered by its owners on Tuesday, more than two weeks after Ms Tumaca was bitten. Two previous attempts by government dog-catchers to retrieve it for observation failed.
Ms Tumaca said Lucky lunged at her while she was feeding it at her employers' flat at about 5pm on December 29. She alleged that the dog had also bitten her on December 25, a day after she arrived from Manila to start work with her employers, but her male boss denied the earlier incident.
The dog had not shown symptoms of rabies and the incubation period for the virus had passed, the department spokeswoman said.
'The dog is still at our animal management centre,' she said. 'The investigation is still going on. We will seek information from relevant parties. We will consider ... prosecution if there is sufficient evidence.'
According to the Rabies Ordinance, all dogs over five months of age must be licensed, implanted with a microchip and vaccinated against rabies, and the licence must be renewed and the dog receive a booster vaccination every three years. Offenders could be fined HK$10,000, the department said.
The government said the last local case of human rabies occurred in 1981 and the last imported case in 2001. Animal rabies has not been reported in Hong Kong since 1987.
The Hospital Authority said Ruttonjee Hospital doctors who had been treating Ms Tumaca had given her anti-tetanus injections but not rabies shots because 'she has been assessed to be a low-risk case for rabies'. The authority said continued observation of the dog had been possible because it was a pet.
It said Ms Tumaca's wounds had healed by January 2.
The Causeway Bay employers terminated Ms Tumaca's employment on January 7, 'because she did not report for duty on January 4, with no valid reason', according to her termination letter.
Ms Tumaca, a 31-year-old married mother of two young children, had previously worked for 33 months for another Hong Kong family.
Policing rabies
The government says there are 150,000 vaccinated and licensed dogs in Hong Kong
The number of prosecutions last year for contravention of the Rabies Ordinance was: 589
