Mon 14th Nov: Everything has consequences

 It's not only me who has become aware that there's a huge shortage of vets in Hong Kong, as this has been the subject of discussion even outside the veterinary and animal recue community.  Vet clinics are desperately short of experienced staff, vets and vet nurses, resulting in the closure of some and the end of 24-hour service in others.  Even the more well-known clinics are struggling to find replacements when their vets leave, some to go to other clinics while others are leaving Hong Kong altogether.  New specialist clinics are opening, but for the majority of pet owners they just want to have a regular clinic and vet that they know and trust.  

One result of this worrying situation is that there's a lack of vets offering low-cost desexing for stray dogs, otherwise known as TNR (Trap, Neuter and Return), and this has the knock-on effect of an increase in the number of unwanted puppies being born.  Someone I know who has been involved in TNR for many years made this observation when she asked if we could take in (yet another) litter that she was trying to catch.  The truth is all animal NGOs are completely full, and that includes HKDR, but in this case we agreed to accept the puppies.  Three came yesterday and there are another four arriving on Tuesday, but I have said this is all we can take.   Apart from the lack of space, pretty much all born-wild puppies come to us with tick fever, and that's a huge financial burden, as well as the fact that not many people want to adopt puppies that aren't 100% healthy. 

The future consequence of this difficult situation is that there will be yet more unwanted puppies born, because females can come into season as young as five months of age, which means they themselves give birth to yet more unwanted puppies before they're even adults.  In my opinion, it's unacceptable that the HKSAR Government are still not doing anything, when at the very least they should be opening free desexing clinics for the TNR dogs.  Nobody, and I mean literally nobody, likes to see stray and starving dogs and puppies in the hillsides, and they're everywhere.  It's unfair of the HK Government to place the burden of this on the rescue organisations, or the independent volunteers, and it's really time to get something done. 

Lucky boy Gabriel

There's at least some happy news about another Tai Po dog who's moving from his foster home to a new family.  This time it's Gabriel whose life has been changed forever, with thanks to both adopter and ex-foster parents.