She sold two village homes, jewellery, to run Hong Kong Homeless Dog Shelter, even as donations dried up amid Covid-19 pandemic
- Angela Chan sold her village houses, jewellery, and borrowed from banks to run the shelter, even as many stopped their donations amid the pandemic
- ‘Once you bring a dog home, it should be a lifelong commitment,’ she says, appealing to owners to keep their dogs and take good care of them
Angela Chan Ka-yee, 60, still recalls the day she found a black and brown puppy curled up inside a tree hole in Ta Kwu Ling in the New Territories.
The poor animal was weak, with a deep wound on the left part of his head, covered in blood and maggots. Chan, founder of the Hong Kong Homeless Dog Shelter, remembers the rotting stench when she picked up the injured dog and took him to her animal shelter.
The puppy went through six surgeries over nine months to treat his wound, which Chan suspects was caused by human abuse. He also had to be treated for heartworm disease.
The animal has since recovered, but lost his left eye.
Now five years old, he is being taken care of by Chan and her volunteers at the shelter. She named him “Fu Meng Chai”, meaning pitiful boy in Cantonese, as a negative name can bring good fortune in Chinese tradition, she says.
“I feel bad for him. How come there are still so many poor lives in today’s society, with such rich material resources?” she adds.