Details:
| HONG KONG TIME | |
| Date: | 27 October 2021 (Wednesday) |
| Time: | 12:00pm - 1:00pm |
For more details and registration, please email Tatum Chan at chan.tatum@cityu.edu.hk.
Abstract:
In September 2021, the findings of a study funded by the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination office of the HKSAR government were released. The study examined 335 animal cruelty cases detailed in the SPCA's investigation database from 2013 to 2019. The study found action is necessary to educate owners to voluntarily surrender animals they can no longer care for appropriately rather than place the animals' welfare at risk by abandoning them. To counter the risk to animals in unregulated shelters, there is an urgent need to introduce shelter licensing legislation in Hong Kong. Government policies prohibiting the keeping of dogs in public housing alongside historical dog population management strategies have also contributed to the problem of abandonment of dogs in Hong Kong.
At this event, two of the study’s authors will discuss their findings.
Speaker:
Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort of the Faculty of Law publishes internationally on animal welfare and conservation law. She is the Faculty's Director of Knowledge Exchange and Impact and is committed to ensuring her work effects improved protections for animals. Her work on animal welfare and endangered species protection has been cited in the Hong Kong Legislative Council and the courts of Hong Kong. Dr Fiona Woodhouse has been the Deputy Director (Welfare) of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (HK) since 2003. She is a veterinary surgeon and specialist in animal welfare and shelter medicine. Over the past ten years, she has co-authored four law reports on animal protection in Hong Kong with Assoc Professor Whitfort. Their reports have led to significant legislative reform benefitting wild and domestic species.