Weds 24th March: What do you think?

Candy has her own family now

There were two lucky puppies today, Candy and Shandy (coincidence?), and although not related they did come to us from AFCD on the same day.  Shandy was sent to Whiskers N Paws with her brother Gunner, and their initial shyness disappeared almost as soon as they arrived.  Now we have to arrange a new friend for Gunner.

Gunner isn't shy any more

We received an interesting letter from AFCD today, with a "Proposal for Reducing the Number of Surrendered Animals to AFCD's Animal Management Centres".  There were two suggestions offered, the first being to simply not allow anyone to walk in and surrender their pet.  The second being to stop offering a free pick-up service, and if you're shocked that this was (is) even available I agree, it's ridiculous. 

I sent my reply immediately as all comments needed to be received by 2nd April, and this is what I said:

"Dear Dr Shirley Chuk,

In response to the letter received regarding AFCD wanting to reduce the number of dogs being surrendered to AFCD, I have the following comments.

I fully and absolutely agree that AFCD should not be offering a collection service for those dog owners who can't even be bothered to take their poor pets to the nearest AMC, and don't understand why this free service was even available in the first place. 

Regarding walk-in surrenders, what would happen to the animals that people no longer wanted?  I can tell you, they would just be dumped on the street.

Having said that, when HKDR take in a surrendered dog we ask for details of health (including vaccinations and heartworm prevention), age and behaviour, and the reason for surrender.  I have already suggested to AFCD that you do the same thing, to help with the assessment and so the information can be passed to NGOs that accept the dogs for re-homing.  As it stands we have no past health information given to us.  My previous suggestion was rejected, even though it's easy to implement and makes sense all round. 

From our own observation, the number of dogs and puppies being surrendered to AFCD  already dropped dramatically in 2020, and there are very few available for re-homing in comparison to previous years.  I have my own theories about the reason for this if you're interested in hearing them. Let me know.

So to repeat, I 100% agree that AFCD should stop the collection service, and immediately.  I don't agree that you should stop accepting surrendered animals but there should be a fee charged for accepting animals as well as a surrender form giving full details of health, behaviour and reason for  surrender."

What do you think?  You can email your opinions to amchq1@afcd.gov.hk, attention Dr Shirley Chuk.

In case you're wondering why I think there has already been a dramatic drop in the numbers of dogs surrendered to AFCD, it's because of the increase in dogs and puppies being taken in by the growing number of Animal Rescue groups, whether registered charities like HKDR or just volunteers trying to help.  The majority of puppies HKDR receives these days are from such independent rescuers.