Cages holding carcasses of dog, two cats found on Hong Kong beach, recalling dark discovery of 15 dead pets in August
- Police say one of the cages was found by a woman in Lantau Island’s Sham Wat, who had spotted a pair of crates floating offshore on Sunday
- A number of drowned pets were found in similar circumstances over August 26 and 27, days after a customs operation at sea had seized live, microchipped dogs
Two cages containing the carcasses of one dog and two cats were found washed up on a Hong Kong beach on Tuesday, prompting police to launch a criminal investigation into animal cruelty.
The new case came to light shortly after 11am on Tuesday when a woman found one of the cages on a beach in Lantau Island’s Sham Wat. Police at the scene subsequently found the second cage.
The cage was believed to have been washed ashore. It is not known whether the cage found today was one of the two crates she spotted on Sunday
According to the force, one of the two crates contained a dog carcass, while the other held two dead cats.
“The cages were believed to have washed ashore,” a police spokesman said.
The same woman told police she had spotted two cages floating off the beach on Sunday but did notify the force at the time.
It was not yet known if the crates found on Tuesday were the same ones she spotted two days earlier.
Officers from the Lantau police station are investigating the case, while staff from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have also been called in to assist.
In Hong Kong, cruelty to animals carries a maximum penalty of three years in jail and a HK$200,000 (US$26,000) fine.
On August 21, at Mui Wo on Lantau, police and customs officers seized goods worth HK$37 million (US$4.8 million), including abalone, electronics, red wine and cosmetic products on a speedboat in one of the biggest smuggling cases of its kind this year
Fear grips mainland Chinese pet owners over gruesome find involving 15 dead animals on Hong Kong shores
Four cages carrying 12 microchipped dogs of various breeds, including Labradors, Pomeranians, poodles, Yorkshire terriers and Maltese, were also among the seized items. Two mainland men were arrested.
The case took a grim turn on August 26, when a cage containing the badly decomposed carcasses of three microchipped dogs was found washed ashore near St Stephen’s Beach in Stanley, in southern Hong Kong Island.
Another two crates with 12 dead cats were found on a Lamma Island beach the following day. Law enforcement sources suspected the animals were thrown overboard by smugglers attempting to destroy evidence or lighten their speedboat’s load while being pursued.
Police said in September that animal smuggling was rare but expanding as a business amid the coronavirus pandemic, as many owners – believed to be mainland Chinese working or studying abroad – had paid about 40,000 yuan (US$6,000) each to an agency to have their pets sent back to them after they returned home.
