Thurs 19th July: Please don't buy lives

Stories such as this one about an American cocker spaniel puppy are both sad and frustrating, as well as being far too common.  This dog was lucky in that she came straight to us rather than being passed from home to home before ending up a psychological and emotional basket case as so many do, especially poodles as they are so intelligent and sensitive.

This puppy was imported from Japan and sold for $30,000

What happened in this case is that a couple came to our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre a few weeks ago and asked if we would accept an American cocker spaniel puppy, then six months old.  The dog had been bought by their son who had then left it with his parents, who lived in "No Pets" Public Housing.  They put the puppy in a cage where it barked and barked so they needed to get rid of it, but couldn't do so without their son's permission as the registered owner.

Of course we said yes to accepting the dog, but then time passed so we assumed the puppy had been given away to someone else or was staying with them, locked up in a cage like so many others.  However today the parents turned up with the puppy, now eight months old, and a very sweet girl.  They handed over the license which had been signed by the son, so I immediately took it to AFCD to have the ownership transferred to my name, not wanting to risk any change of heart. The son, still under our HKDR minimum adoption requirement age of twenty one, had paid thirty thousand dollars for the puppy, imported from Japan, and to me it's beyond comprehension.

If you are interested in adopting this gorgeous puppy please complete the Adoption Questionnaire on our website www.hongkongdogrescue.com (under Adopt).  I'm expecting to receive a lot of enquiries and will obviously choose the home we consider to be the best for this girl, but that doesn't mean there might not be other dogs perfect for the home.  There's only one American cocker available but many others just as deserving.

There are lots of things about this case that highlights the problem with pets shops, the first being that they don't care if the person buying a puppy is six or sixty, or if they live in a home where pets aren't allowed.  They don't care if the puppy will spend its whole life in a cage and is never walked, and they don't care if the buyer licenses and desexes their purchase, or goes on to use it for breeding.  Pet shops care about one thing and that's money.  It's a business that happens to sell lives rather than clothes or furniture, and although the Cap139b Animal Trader Licensing laws were introduced to try to stop the rogue breeders and sellers, so far it doesn't seem to have made much of a difference.  The ex-breeder dogs that are surrendered, even to AFCD, are still coming in without microchips or licenses, and while online sales of puppies are being monitored the fines, if any, are so derisory they make the work of AFCD and the Courts a waste of public time and money.  A $4000 fine means nothing when puppies are being sold for at least double that, if not a lot more.  You can read about this particular case on the AFCD website http://www.afcd.gov.hk/english/publications/publications_press/pr2233.html

Merlin was another impulse pet shop purchase who had already been passed on to a friend before coming to us

At least AFCD are aware that there are ongoing problems with the Animal Trader Licensing requirements, and loopholes that very quickly became apparent.   There will be a meeting with the Animal NGOs next month to discuss these issues, which will hopefully result in a tightening of the laws in the not too distant future.  In the meantime we can only keep pushing the message about adoption, and using the beautiful dogs and puppies that we have homed as perfect examples of why there is never a need to buy.