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Food Safety, Environmental Hygiene, Agriculture and Fisheries

Animal Welfare and Management

The government's approach towards animal welfare and management includes strengthening public education, controlling animal trading properly, fostering close partnerships with animal welfare organisations, managing stray animals properly, and handling and preventing acts of animal cruelty.

Hong Kong has been rabies-free since the 1980s. In 2016, some 61,400 dogs were licensed and vaccinated against rabies. About 1,900 stray dogs and 870 stray cats were brought to the AFCD Animal Management Centres. The department runs a rehoming programme for the healthy and well-tempered ones.

All pet shops selling animals must be licensed by the department, which inspects these shops. regularly to ensure compliance with the licence conditions. Pet shops are required to obtain dogs for sale only from approved sources. The department runs a programme to promote respect and care for animals. In 2016, 93 educational talks, four dog training courses, 25 thematic or roving exhibitions and three pet adoption events were held to promote responsible pet ownership and rabies prevention.

The department partners 15 animal welfare organisations in providing animal rehoming services, covering dogs, cats, rabbits, birds and reptiles. The organisations are invited to join forces with the department to hold Animal Adoption Day activities and to provide free desexing services for animals rehomed through them. The department also offers subventions for projects of these partner organisations which aim to enhance animal welfare and management.

To improve the handling of animal cruelty reports, an inter-departmental special working group involving the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and relevant government departments, including the police, FEHD and AFCD, examines the government's work on handling animal cruelty cases, devises guidelines and ensures animal welfare is well protected.

In 2016, the government proposed amending the Public Health (Animals and Birds) (Animal Trader) Regulations to better regulate pet trading. The legislative proposals include introducing a new licensing scheme to tighten the regulation of dog breeders and sellers; increasing penalties under the law; and empowering the Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation to revoke animal trader licences under certain circumstances.

Primary Production

Hong Kong's agricultural and fisheries industries are relatively small in scale. The government helps improve their output quality, productivity and competitiveness. In 2016, the combined output of the two industries, which employed some 18,300 people directly, was $3.74 billion. Live poultry accounted for 95 per cent of local consumption; cut flowers, 39 per cent; seafood, 22 per cent; live pigs, 5.8 per cent; freshwater fish, 4 per cent; and local vegetables, 1.7 per cent.

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