Inside Out | Some ideas for cleaning up Hong Kong’s dog excrement

I am tired of talking about Trump and trade. Perhaps you are tired of listening to my rants too. Let me talk about something bothering me closer to home – dog poo.

For the past 15 years I have lived in a clan village out in Clearwater Bay. That brings peace and quiet and a weekend sense of calm that is never possible in a 40th floor apartment in Sheung Wan or Hung Hom.

But country living comes with its downsides. Apart from having to comply with the peccadilloes of clan law and order, perhaps the single most irksome daily reality is dog poo.

Hong Kong today apparently has over 65,000 licensed dogs. Most of them are marvellously pampered pooches, carried in handbags and even dog prams.

One of my neighbours has a home helper dedicated exclusively to looking after her pooches. In homage to the average miniature Hong Kong home, the favourite Hong Kong dog is a poodle, followed by yappy Pomeranians, Schnauzers and scrawny Chihuahuas – hardly the kind of dogs to constitute a dog poo threat.

But village and New Territories dogs are a different matter. First, most clan village dogs are only “owned” in the most technical sense. Over the decades they have been resident scavengers tolerated for their valuable guard dog services, barely domesticated, and not to be messed with at all. The wife of one German neighbour regularly fulminates over the late-night eruptions of village wide dog barking if even one detects a disturbance, but she is kept in check by those of us who value their role in keeping burglars at bay. For these minimally civilised clan mongrels, poo spots are all part of territory marking, and heaven help a visiting dog that encroaches on their territory.