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SCMP Reporter

Updated at 7.32pm:
Despite the need to stop the spread of bird-flu in Hong Kong, current laws need to be amended to allow pet owners to keep specified birds as pets, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok said on Wednesday.
 
Dr Chow was introducing an amendment of the Public Health (Licensing of Livestock Keeping) Regulation into the Legislative Council on Wednesday afternoon.

The Health Secretary told Legco: ?The major aim of the amendment is to enable the Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation (DFAC) to issue exemption permits to allow keeping of the specified birds, including chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons and quails, that have been kept as pets before the law that banned backyard poultry came into effect.? 

The confirmed case of backyard poultry infected with the H5N1 virus in a local household in February showed the hazards backyard poultry pose to public health. Therefore, the government had banned backyard poultry keeping in Hong Kong. 

But Dr Chow said the government acknowledged some people were keeping birds as pets ? not for food.

?Since the law came into effect, a few members of the public have openly asserted that their poultry were kept as pets instead of being food animals.

?The administration has considered these views and noted with compassion the bonds between the owners and their pet poultry and the owner?s wish to keep their poultry as pets till their natural deaths,? he added.

Dr Chow said that when the amendment to the law was approved, provided people could provide sufficient evidence to prove the poultry had been kept as pets, then the DFAC would issue exemption permits.

Under the conditions stipulated in such an exemption permit, the DFAC may send staff to inspect premises to ensure compliance with bio-security measures. 



Amendment introduced to Legco to allow birds to be kept as pets