Mystery Samaritan saves 100 dogs' lives
One hundred abandoned dogs are to be moved from Hong Kong to a new home in the New Territories today after a mystery benefactor saved their lives by temporarily donating a house and garden for them to live in.
A convoy of cars, vans, buses and trucks will begin driving the homeless pets this morning from the kennels of Hong Kong Dog Rescue in Pok Fu Lam to their new home on a hillside outside Tai Po, which was given to the struggling charity with only days to spare.
The transfer - nicknamed Dog-kirk by some of the charity's supporters - will involve more than 100 people, with one volunteer comforting each dog as it is removed from the Pok Fu Lam kennels, which are being emptied to make way for redevelopment by the owner, Swire.
Founder Sally Andersen faced having to have most of the unwanted dogs destroyed when the lease on the Pok Fu Lam kennels, which ran out in November but was extended for five months by Swire, finally expired at the end of April.
With the deadline to quit the kennels less than two weeks away and an alternative venue in the New Territories blocked by planning objections, an anonymous well-wisher offered Hong Kong Dog Rescue the isolated house with a 40,000 square foot garden.
Since the South China Morning Post highlighted the charity's plight, 80 of its 180 animals have been adopted, given temporary foster homes or placed in private kennels, leaving 100 to be moved in the 32-kilometre canine evacuation starting this morning.
Andersen, whose charity seeks homes for stray dogs that would otherwise be destroyed, said: 'It has been an extremely stressful few weeks. The offer of this house was a life-saver for the dogs - literally - because until it came up we just didn't know what was going to happen.' An intermediary approached the charity with the offer of temporary use of the house, which is isolated from other houses and situated next to a water treatment plant and a columbarium. The owner's identity is a closely guarded secret.
'I know she is a woman and I should imagine she is wealthy, but that is about all I know,' Andersen said. 'The house has a huge garden, so the dogs will have a lot of space to run around, but the accommodation is going to be tight.
'Rather than individual kennels, they'll all be sleeping together in a big dormitory-like bedroom. The 30 dogs who have gone to private kennels are only there for a month while we settle in, so they will come back to us, and the numbers will go back up.'
The Tai Po house has been loaned to Hong Kong Dog Rescue for six months only, meaning the long-term search for a new home will continue after this weekend's operation.
'The house hasn't been lived in for a few years, and the garden is all overgrown, so we've had teams of volunteers going up there every day to clear the undergrowth. We've got contractors putting up basic fencing to separate the garden from the driveway,' Andersen said.
The motorised convoy will take the dogs in small groups from Pok Fu Lam to Tai Po, and Andersen is still seeking additional volunteers to help the animals cope with the trauma of the move.
'Some of them are going to be extremely stressed,' she said. 'It isn't going to be easy to get them in the cars. We want a volunteer per dog to sit with the dogs so they are not loose in cars. The really frightened ones we will have to put in travel crates and just see how it goes.'
The operation to move the dogs begins at 9 am. Volunteers will stay overnight with the animals in the two-storey house to help them settle into their new surroundings.
