Advancing Animal Welfare Laws in Hong Kong
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Advancing Animal Welfare
Laws in Hong Kong
Amanda Whitfort
Overview
The Hong Kong government has recently committed to
updating animal welfare laws in the jurisdiction. Much of the current
legislation, which was drafted in the 1930's, is in urgent need of
reconsideration in the light of current societal attitudes supporting
animal welfare and growing concern for containment of animal related
disease. In 2007 an online survey conducted by local activist group
Animal Earth polled 3,253 Hong Kong residents and found that 97.
4% of respondents agreed people who dumped their pets should be
punished and 94% said the current penalties for cruelty to animals were
too lenient.2 This was despite the maximum penalty for cruelty being
raised to a fine of HK$200,000 and a maximum of three years
imprisonment, only the year before. Accordingly, government has been
forced to respond to increasing public concern as to the adequacy of
legislation available to address cases of cruelty to animals and review
the laws.3
The review period commenced at the end of 2007 and was originally
intended to take one year. The government department responsible for
animal welfare in Hong Kong, The Agriculture, Fisheries and
Conservation Department (AFCD) set up a consultative group to
begin to review the laws and reported its preliminary proposals on 19
February 2008 to the Administration. However, matters raised by
members of the Legislative Council during a motion debate held on 16
January 2008 highlighted a number of issues which have yet to be
addressed adequately by the AFCD and which are not currently the
subject of the AFCD's proposals for law reform. Whilst legislative
* Associate Professor, The University of Hong Kong.
1 The work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from the Central Policy Unit of the Government of the Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region and the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,
China (Award HKU 7010-PPR-5).
2 'Most want tougher action overAnimal Abuse: Survey', South China Morning Post, 14 October 2007.
3 Report of the Bills Committee on Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Amendment) Bill 2006, Legislative Council Paper No CB(2)
483/06-07.
4 Hong Kong Legislative Council PaperNo CB (2) 1061/07-08 (01).
5 Hong Kong Legislative Council PaperNo CB (3) 408/07-08.
[2009] 2 AAPLJ 65](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ausanplj2&div=9&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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