Weds 12th April: TNR too late too little

I feel like I'm marking time until the (yet another) holiday is over, although there are adoption enquiries and meetings trickling through.  There's just one more day before the Easter break and I have to pack as much in as I can, and the hope on the horizon is that it will be sunny and dry again by Sunday.

Molly and Herbie with their caring guardian

It's always a shock when baby puppies that were still drinking milk from a bottle when I last saw them are now almost ready for their first vaccinations, as not only does it prove that time flies past and puppies grow and change too quickly, but it means another four little lives are starting for real and that they will all be needing homes soon.  It scares me that the number of homeless dogs never reduces, and nor does the number of unwanted puppies born.

Lola and Enzo also have a temporary carer

There are two sides to this problem, the lack of education or even caring on the part of the dog owners who don't have their pets desexed, and the refusal by the Hong Kong government to acknowledge the real and urgent need for TNR (Trap, Neuter and Return) many years ago.  I do strongly believe that had this scheme been implemented rather than TNR volunteers being prosecuted, the situation wouldn't be as serious as it is now.  Frankly the trials that have been approved are way too little and far too late, and they are so restrictive that the numbers won't make a difference.  There are amazing volunteers, groups and individuals, all over Hong Kong and the New Territories who are spending their own time and money trapping and desexing hundreds of stray dogs.  These dogs will almost certainly have a short lifespan anyway, but without the desexing the females can start reproducing when they themselves are only seven or eight months old and may have two litters of eight pups twice a year.

Goldie was one of a large family group of TNR dogs

It's all very well for the AFCD dog catching teams to respond to complaints and to pick up the easiest of the adults (the friendly ones) or the newborns who can't run away, but what happens to them?  As far as Hong Kong Island and the Outlying Islands of Lamma, Lantau, Cheung Chau and Peng Chau are concerned, all of these dogs and puppies are taken to the Animal Management Centre at Pokfulam where I will see them and in most cases take them out for eventual re-homing.  So in a sense it all comes full circle with HKDR being the organisation left to deal with the mess.  At the same time, although AFCD does offer free desexing for all of the dogs and puppies taken from their centres, from the perspective of a charity that is constantly struggling to bring in enough money to pay for the care of so many dogs and puppies, it's a never-ending headache and worry.

We are at least hopefully making some headway with the Stanley Barracks dogs thanks to our volunteer Catherine and her discussions with the army staff there. They have agreed to try and trap the adults so they can be desexed (which we will arrange).

I did get confirmation today that the "B" litter came from Stanley too, although it was really pretty obvious seeing the resemblance.

Woody last November

Current "B" litter Bruno