Promoting responsible dog ownership
I refer to the letters by Lee Yong-lah ('Law hinders desexing', October 22) and Michael Hwang of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department ('Department takes integrated approach to control strays', October 26 ).
The government and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have been working very hard together to implement applicable principles from the World Organisation for Animal Health's Guidelines on Stray Dog Population Control, at the local community level, through provision of many services and programmes that relate to animal health, safety and the public good.
The scope of the guidelines is to deal with stray and feral dogs, which may pose serious human health, animal health and welfare problems. The joint efforts of the department and SPCA have strategically focused on ensuring animal welfare in dog population control, and co-ordinating their activities in the provision on a 24-hour basis, to help distressed, injured or abandoned animals.
The key international guideline is to promote responsible dog ownership to significantly reduce the numbers of strays. It is because dog ecology is linked with human activities that control of dog populations has to be accompanied by changes in human behaviour to be effective.
Problems caused by stray dogs, such as noise, poor environmental hygiene caused by faeces, urine, leftover food, and rats, bite injuries and traffic accidents, would not be alleviated if dogs were trapped, neutered and then returned to the local community and their movements were not restricted.
Dogs that are removed from a community may be too numerous or unsuitable for any rehoming scheme.
