Opinion | Why are so many pets abandoned in Hong Kong? Rumours around the coronavirus outbreak don’t help

The city’s SPCA says it receives 900 inquiries each month from owners thinking about giving up their pets

While some are left with little choice, many cases involve a lamentable lack of commitment to animals

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An abandoned dog being looked after at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals headquarters, in Wan Chai, in Hong Kong. Photo: SCMP

Kylie Knott

Published: 8:30am, 21 Feb 2020Updated: 8:30am, 21 Feb 2020

Pets are for life. We’ve all heard the mantra and yet pets are surrendered or discarded every day around the globe.

Hong Kong has seen a massive rise in pet ownership. According to a 2017 report by the Veterinary Surgeons Board of Hong Kong, pet ownership surged by 72 per cent from 297,100 dogs and cats in 2005-06 to 510,600 in 2015-16.

Sadly, some owners still take a short-term view of pet ownership, giving their animals away once caring for them becomes “ma fan” (troublesome).

The city’s cramped living conditions and laws forbidding dogs in public housing estates don’t help the situation. Being a transient city, many pets are also rehomed when people pack up and leave, a situation that’s been fuelled by anti-government protests. Now the coronavirus outbreak is adding to the problem.

Fiona Woodhouse, the SPCA’s deputy director of welfare services, in Wan Chai. Photo: Nora Tam

Just this week the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals – which receives a staggering 900 inquiries each month from owners thinking about giving up their pets – released a statement with the city’s main veterinary body urging pet owners not to make hasty decisions regarding their pets as the rumour mill went into over drive.

“It is very important for owners to understand that there are no known risks of humans contracting Covid-19 from their pets,” it stated.