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Following is a question by the Hon Choy So-yuk and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (December 20):
Question :
According to the Code of Practice for the Keeping of Dogs on Construction Sites in Hong Kong issued by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), upon completion of a project on a construction site, the contractor concerned must re-home and move the dogs on the site (construction site dogs) to a new location. If there is no alternative, the officer-in-charge of the site should surrender them to AFCD. It has been reported that although a number of large-scale contractors signed the above Code last year, there are still about 4 000 construction site dogs which become stray dogs every year, indicating that some contractors have not complied with the Code. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective estimated current numbers of construction site dogs in Hong Kong and those which were abandoned;
(b) of the total number of construction site dogs surrendered to AFCD in the past year;
(c) of the number of non-compliance cases (including failure to have the dogs licensed, or cause the dogs to be vaccinated against Rabies and micro-chipped) found in the past year by AFCD during its inspection of construction sites to ensure contractors' compliance with the above Code; and for cases in which the dog owners were penalised as a result, of the number of construction sites and the penalties involved; and
(d) whether it will consider enacting legislation to enhance regulating the keeping of dogs on construction sites, in order to prevent construction site dogs from being abandoned; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply :
Madam President,
(a) The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) does not have the estimated number of dogs at construction sites in Hong Kong. However, past statistics of dogs caught in construction sites show that they were mostly stray dogs. In 2005, AFCD caught 468 stray dogs during inspections to construction sites.
(b) In 2005, AFCD received about 3 000 dogs. We do not keep separate figures of dogs surrendered by construction sites.
(c) In 2005, AFCD made 254 inspections to construction sites. Separately, during the same period, there were about 480 cases of prosecution against owners failing to license their dogs and about 130 cases of prosecution against owners letting their dogs go astray. However, as the keepers of dogs found in construction sites are hard to establish, there were no prosecutions against construction sites by AFCD in 2005.
(d) AFCD has reached a consensus with the relevant department that from October 2006 onwards, there will be special specification in the contracts of all new public works requiring the contractors to obtain licences for the dogs in the concerned construction site and have the dogs neutered. If there are stray dogs in the sites, the contractors must notify AFCD and provide means for AFCD staff to enter into the site and remove the stray dogs. The contractors must also follow the Code of Practice for the Keeping of Dogs on Construction Sites in Hong Kong issued by AFCD, which include a prohibition on dog abandonment. The Government considers that this arrangement will alleviate the problem of construction site dogs. The Government will consider to promote the relevant clauses to other private development companies and public development organisations.
Ends/Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:33
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