LCQ8: Regulating animal hospice services
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Question:
It is learnt that in recent years the steady increase in the number of pet keepers in Hong Kong has led to a growing demand for animal hospice services. It is reported that some animal hospice service providers (service providers) have conducted pet cremation services in industrial buildings, causing problems such as breaches of lease conditions, air pollution and sanitary nuisance. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the numbers of complaints about pet cremation services received by each department and the follow-up outcome respectively in each of the past three years, with a breakdown by complaint category; among them, the respective numbers of cases involving contraventions of (i) lease conditions, (ii) the Air Pollution Control Ordinance (Cap. 311) and (iii) the Fire Services Ordinance (Cap. 95) that ultimately resulted in successful prosecutions;
(2) as the Government indicated in its reply to a question from a Member of this Council on October 22, 2025 that it had no plans to introduce specific legislation to regulate animal hospice services, and yet given the absence of a licensing regime regulating service providers or introduced in respect of animal hospice services under the existing legislation, whether the Government will reconsider enacting legislation to regulate such services or introduce a unified licensing regime for the operation of animal hospice services to safeguard public interest;
(3) as there are views that, under the Air Pollution Control (Furnaces, Ovens and Chimneys) (Installation and Alteration) Regulations (Cap. 311A), only incineration facilities consuming more than 25 litres of fuel per hour require applications to the Environmental Protection Department prior to installation, resulting in some service providers deliberately using small cremators with low fuel consumption and poorer combustion efficiency to circumvent prior vetting, whether the Government will expedite the review and amendment of the relevant legislation to abolish the single fuel consumption threshold, or require all commercial pet cremators to be equipped with secondary combustion and flue gas filtration devices; and
(4) to address operational issues of pet cremation facilities, whether the Government will designate specific lands in urban planning or add a dedicated "pet cremation" category to the land use categories, in order to zone suitable areas for the provision of legal and compliant pet cremation services?
Reply:
President,
Having consulted the Development Bureau and the Security Bureau, the reply to the question from Dr the Hon Chan Han-pan is as follows:
(1) In the past three years, the number of complaints received by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), the Environmental Protection Department (EPD), the Fire Services Department (FSD) and the Lands Department (LandsD) on pet cremation services and the follow-up outcome, are set out at Annex, categorised by the type of complaint and the number of successful prosecutions.
(2) Currently, various government departments regulate pet cremation operating premises in accordance with legislations or the terms of the land leases. For example, upon receipt of complaints about these premises causing sanitary nuisance, environmental pollution, fire hazard or breach of terms of the land lease, the FEHD, the EPD, the FSD, or the LandsD will carry out inspections and take enforcement actions as necessary. The Government has no plans to separately introduce specific legislation or licence system.
(3) The Air Pollution Control Ordinance (Cap. 311) (the Ordinance) already controls air pollutant emitted during the operation of incinerators, furnaces and ovens. The Ordinance stipulates that the operation of incinerators with installed capacity exceeding 0.5 tonne per hour is a "specified process". The owner of the incinerators must apply for a "specified process" licence from the EPD in advance.
According to the regulation under the Air Pollution Control (Furnaces, Ovens and Chimneys) (Installation and Alteration) Regulations (Cap. 311A), for furnaces or ovens that have installed capacities below "specified process" but consume more than
(i) 25 litres of conventional liquid fuel per hour; or
(ii) 35 kilograms of conventional solid fuel per hour; or
(iii) 1 150 megajoules of any gaseous fuel per hour,
their owner must submit plans and specifications of the relevant furnaces, ovens, chimneys or flues to the EPD not less than 28 days prior to their installation, and must obtain approval from the EPD on the plans and specifications before installing and operating the relevant equipment.
Equipment that does not meet the above consumption levels is very small and generally does not cause air pollution. Abolishing or further tightening the threshold would subject a large number of small stoves, even residential stoves, to the pre-application requirements, causing inconvenience to many citizens and is unnecessary. If air pollution issues arise due to improper operation or other reasons, the Ordinance has already granted the power to the EPD to issue air pollution abatement notice to the owner of the equipment, and require them to rectify the pollution problem.
(4) In terms of town planning, "pet cremation facilities" is currently not under any existing categories of use in statutory town plans. Interested operators may submit an application to the Town Planning Board (TPB) in accordance with section 12A of the Town Planning Ordinance to rezone a certain statutory planning use to a designated use for "pet cremation facilities", or submit an application for planning approval in accordance with section 16 under appropriate circumstances if said "pet cremation facilities" are temporary use only. The TPB would consider and decide on each case individually having taken into factors such as land use compatibility, impacts on the surrounding environment, views from relevant bureaux and departments, etc. Since setting up these facilities may have potential impacts on the surrounding environment while each existing building differs in conditions, we consider the current application-based arrangement more prudent.
Ends/Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Issued at HKT 12:12
Issued at HKT 12:12
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