WEEKEND HIKER Peter Spurrier had encountered stray dogs many times before but this time something felt different. A dog approached him as he entered the walled village of Mok Ka, on Lantau Island, but it turned on its heels after not recognising the scent of his outstretched hand. The 27-year-old cautiously proceeded down the public path, gazing down each alley separating the homes. Empty. Empty. Empty. Then, 'a massive pile of dogs' including the sentinel the newspaper editor had briefly encountered.
The pack moved in, its battle experience obvious: one dog was missing an eye, others had torn ears and multiple scars. He quickly squatted down and pretended to pick up a rock, a tactic that had many times prior sent strays scampering. Two turned and ran but seven held and charged, 'going for blood', fangs tearing at his jeans, the mangy animals lunging at his head. Screaming, he 'hammered down' with his fists while slowly walking backward, aware he must not fall. Two dogs got behind him; he was surrounded. Suddenly his back hit a gate, he turned, opened it and slammed it on the 'slathering' animals, 'sweating and shaking with fear and rage at the same time'.
'I didn't expect that on a Sunday hike,' he says, having received hospital treatment for a bite on his calf that punctured the skin. 'If I fell down and they got at my throat anything could have happened. If I had been with a kid they would have killed me,' says Spurrier, who at 1.78 metres tall, weighing 76 kilograms, isn't a pushover.
But there have also been many tales from the city of tormenting canines over the years - the Letters To The Editor page of this newspaper carries regular correspondence on the issue. There is the rather infamous pack that lives, ironically, in front of Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's property on Island Road in Repulse Bay. People strolling the Repulse Bay Promenade are forced to carry sticks to protect themselves and their pets from the growling mongrels. But possibly the most sensational incident happened in 1995 when a pack of stray dogs terrorised an outdoor market at Smithfield Road in Western, killing 44 chickens and two cats and terrifying shoppers and hawkers.
Although local animal experts say stray dogs most often exhibit a healthy fear of humans, attacks have been documented and almost everyone seems to have a terror-filled story to relate.
The Department of Public Health says it treated 2,177 bite cases in 1999 (the majority from stray dogs although the statistic incorporates bites from all animals, pets or otherwise) and administered anti-rabies shots - although no one has contracted rabies from a stray dog here for more than a decade. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conser-vation Department (AFCD) says it responds to 300 to 400 reported bites by strays a year.