Districts reject scheme to release neutered stray dogs

After years of campaigning and several public consultation forums, a pilot scheme to capture, neuter and release stray dogs has been rejected in all three district councils involved in the plan.

Councillors in Sai Kung, Lamma Island and Yuen Long voted down the three-year trial, citing concerns that releasing the dogs back into the wild would endanger residents living in the area.

For the past decade, animal welfare groups have been promoting the programme as the best way to reduce the population of stray dogs: trapping, neutering and releasing the animals would prevent the unwanted births of more dogs, they said.

The three-year trial - sought by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the Society for Abandoned Animals - was planned for Lo So Shing on Lamma Island, Ha Pak Nai in Lau Fau Shan, Yuen Long, and in Sai Kung. The proposal was presented at public consultations before being submitted to district councils last year.

But when the time came to decide on the measure, the district councillors either objected to or had reservations about all three proposed locations. Many asked why stray dogs, once captured, should be released, since the animals could endanger the public. They also said irresponsible dog owners might dump their pets in the trial zones.

The defeat means the two animal welfare groups will have to identify new trial sites before consulting the public again, an Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department spokeswoman said.

Sai Kung's opposition came even though its council supported the proposal in 2007. But Ling Man-hoi, the district's housing and environmental hygiene committee chairman, said it was only support in principle and not for the locations suggested. It is not clear how the other two district councils voted in 2007.