Mon 22nd May: Poodle day at Acorn

Roo's eye was very painful

For some reason almost all of the HKDR dogs at Acorn today were poodles, including little Twiggy who had the first of her knee surgeries (the second side will be done after six weeks), foster poodles Lulu and Dougal both with their varying health issues, and another foster poodle Roo, who sadly had to have all of his remaining teeth removed as well as one eye. 

Dougal is a tiny ex-breeder poodle

Twiggy is from the same ex-breeder family as Tara and Tatum 

 

A long time ago when the subject of licensing breeders was first discussed (Cap139b), it was also proposed that there should be some Duty of Care introduced, meaning a minimum level of basic needs that every pet animal should expect.  The subsequent discussions went on for such a long time, with (from my observations) the whole of the breeder licensing laws failing miserably, that I gave up even hoping that the HKSAR Government would take any action.  

You know my feelings about the lack of TNR (Trap, Neuter and Return) which would save so many dogs from the misery of having endless unwanted litters, especially since this has been available for cats for so many years.  The increase in the stray dog population following the Covid restrictions which meant few (if any)  volunteers were able to carry out TNR,  has created an overwhelming burden on the Animal NGOs, all of whom are bursting with puppies and unable to accept the hundreds still in need of shelter and safety.  Believe me when I say this is personally heartbreaking, as I'm sure it is for all of those who are in the same position of having to turn away the innocent puppies being born, and yet we wait in vain for real and practical action.  It's pointless to simply send out the hated AFCD dog catching teams to round up as many dogs and puppies as they can, because what can be done with so many when the rescue organisations are full?   And indeed  why should all of the financial burden be placed on the NGOs when the government continue to do nothing? 

Well it seems that AFCD have come up with this as the answer, at least to the Duty of Care side of things, and the NGOs have been asked to share the information.  So here is the  https://animalwelfareproject.hk/, and my question  would be couldn't the money have been better spent on TNR?  Or perhaps finding and closing down the illegal breeders who are still clearly operating as much as they were before the Animal Trader Licensing laws were introduced.