SCMP : FYI
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 29 March, 2014, 3:25am
http://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/art ... stray-dogsSCMP Editorial
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Attack on shopkeeper highlights problem of stray dogs
Last week in Sok Kwu Wan, Lamma, there was another attack by an uncontrolled, stray dog. This time, a local female shopkeeper was so viciously attacked that she had to be taken to a local hospital for emergency treatment.
This is not the first of these attacks and they will continue as long as uncontrolled dogs are allowed to wander freely in Sok Kwu Wan and Lo So Shing, both on southern Lamma.
Dr May Chow, acting principal veterinary officer of the Agriculture, Fisheries, and Conservation Department, wrote about a trap, neuter, return (TNR) trial ("Trial will help show the way to curb stray dog numbers", January 30).
Dr Chow said that under the trial TNR program stray dogs would be "neutered, microchipped and vaccinated before being released" back into the general population. Herein lies the problem. These are not domesticated animals, but rather untrained, uncontrolled, stray dogs left to their own devices.
What Dr Chow fails to address is who will be liable when one or more of these dogs viciously attacks a child, for example. The answer is the SAR government.
Why these officials have not learned from the TNR program that was launched in Lo So Shing, which has created a massive, aggressive stray dog population, boggles the mind. It would be enlightening to understand why the stray dogs under the department's trial TNR program would be any more domesticated than those wandering our paths and beaches?
To put it simply, there is a stray dog crisis in southern Lamma of biblical proportions, propagated not only by a failed TNR program but also as a result of the department's apathetic and ineffective efforts to enforce its stated catch-and-removal methods.
Rather than focus on unproven experimental techniques, why doesn't the department simply get back to basics, do its job and clean up the aggressive stray dog population haunting southern Lamma?
Last month, the residents of Lo So Shing organized a petition that was delivered to the local office of the Lands Department calling for the removal of more than 50 stray dogs. The people have spoken, and still there has been listless inaction. The result of this negligence, of course, was the brutal and vicious attack by a stray and uncontrolled dog on the shopkeeper.
Just Sayin.. TNR is snake oil, beware those with forked tongue, they want your money and pray on your sympathy.
BTW there was a meeting in Sok Kwu Wan today.. My neighbor witnesses the aggressive behavior/attack on one of the YSW participants and his 2 dogs as he attempted to walk home on the "Family Trail" these dogs were part of the same uncontrolled pack animals that have killed, bitten or maimed companion pets and humans throughout the SKW and LoSo area.
If it ain't on a leash,its in a pack, and no owner is in sight. THAT IS TNR.. Stop it before it comes to your street.