Foreign and Commonwealth Office
АКК
London S.W.1
8 July 1974
From the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
LA T
REF.
115
146
Dear Victor,
NE
REF.
Thank you for your letter of 21 June, forwarding a further letter which you have received from Mr. R.H.W.Pakenham of 25 Rothamsted Avenue, Harpenden, Hertfordshire about the ill-treatment of wildlife imported from China into Hong Kong.
Mr. Pakenham asks that the Regulations governing the trade in live animals and birds be amended to require killing to be done humanely; that the proper officers be instructed to give the enforcement of humane treatment their assiduous attention, especially by surprise inspections; and that breaches of the law be assiduously pursued.
Although it is probably not his main concern, Mr. Pakenham may be interested to see the enclosed copy of Hong Kong's legis- lation governing the killing of animals in slaughter houses. I think he will see from this that animals killed in such places are humanely despatched.
However, Mr. Pakenham is primarily concerned about wild animals which are usually sent live to restaurants and killed on their premises. This is essentially because of the demand of customers for freshly killed meat. Killing therefore takes place at irregular intervals and is far from easy to control. The Hong Kong Government have recently increased their efforts to inspect traders' and restaurant premises to detect cruelty, mainly by using Urban Services Department Health Inspectors. One of the main difficulties is that the greater the efforts that are made to control the trade, the more likely it is that it will be driven underground. It must also be borne in mind that the Hong Kong Government probably cannot count on the full support of local public opinion in implementing laws which appear to the majority of the population to be based on essentially western concepts.
Victor Goodhew Esq. MP
/I hope