A CRACKDOWN on cruel dog breeding farms is to be carried out by the Government.
Inspectors will raid farms exposed in the Sunday Morning Post and take away animals in need of treatment under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance, the Agriculture and Fisheries Department's veterinary officer, Dr Peter Grandison, said yesterday.
'There's been talk of places like this for a while, but this is the closest we've got to seeing where one is,' he said.
The RSPCA said it had been pushing the Government for three years to bring in rules for dog breeders.
RSPCA chairman Melvyn Bennett said he was 'horrified' by the Post report, which detailed terrible conditions of tiny wire cages and dogs with mange and infections at 10 New Territories farms.
'We've voiced deep concern [to the department] about the breeding that goes on in Hong Kong,' he said. 'This one case is probably just the tip of the iceberg.' The farms around the village of Tin Sum Tsuen, near Yuen Long, are thought to supply hundreds of fashionable, pure-bred pups to mainland buyers and local pet shops.
Post reporters visited the farm of Correctional Services Department (CSD) dog handler Ho Wing-fat, who had 14 dogs on the premises. Most had open sores and scabs, eye infections or mange. Dogs were crammed into kennels hardly big enough for them to turn round in. In the Hung Shui Kiu area nearby, a dog's body was decaying in a concrete ditch.
