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Following is a question by the Hon Choy So-yuk and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (April 16):
Question:
Although the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Amendment) Bill 2006 was passed by the Legislative Council at the end of 2006 to raise the penalties for offences relating to cruelty to animals, incidents involving serious animal abuse, some of which even caused the death of the animals concerned, occurred frequently in recent months. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it will review the enforcement of the existing legislation concerned; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) whether it will review if the existing penalties concerned have adequate deterrent effects; if it will, of the details; if it will not, the reasons for that; and
(c) of the statistics on the prosecutions instituted and penalties imposed under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance (Cap. 169) in the past two years (broken down according to the Annex I)?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance (the Ordinance) is the main legislation against animal abuse. The Administration will review the enforcement of the Ordinance from time to time. To enhance cooperation in handling animal cruelty cases between departments, the Police, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Hong Kong) have jointly reviewed the existing procedures for initial investigation at incident scenes, subsequent investigation and follow-up work. The current enforcement of the Ordinance is considered to be generally satisfactory.
(b) The maximum penalty under the Ordinance was increased to a fine of $200,000 and three years' imprisonment in 2006. It should constitute substantial deterrence. The Administration will continue to monitor the implementation of the Ordinance to see if there is a need for further review of the penalties.
(c) Figures on prosecutions instituted and penalties imposed under the Ordinance in the past two years are tabulated in Annex II.
Ends/Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:29
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