Hong Kong judge considers whether animals have right to sue after pet owner seeks judicial review of decision not to prosecute alleged abusers
- The pet owner had adopted one of 30 pets found at the base of a local housing block last year after they apparently had been thrown from a height
- Prosecutors had declined to press charges in the case, citing a lack of evidence
Mr Justice Alex Lee Wan-tang raised the question after the adoptive owner argued that prosecutors had a duty to explain their decisions in cases involving animals as victims.
In an application for a judicial review, barrister Kim McCoy argued there were exceptional circumstances that warranted clarification in the present case, given the immense public interest it generated after the animals were found dead or severely injured at the bottom of the Hong Kong Garden housing estate, near Sham Tseng, on February 14, 2020.
“There is a necessity for the Department of Justice to give proper reasons [for its decision not to prosecute],” McCoy argued. “The public wants and requires accountability.”
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His client, Pang Lok-sze, and her boyfriend adopted one of the 12 surviving pets, a British shorthair cat they named Potter, a day after the department revealed on September 2 – in response to media enquiries – that it would not prosecute the two men investigated due to insufficient evidence. The 18 other animals involved, which included birds and rodents, were killed in the incident.