Mon 4th June: Is the Bowen Road poisoner back?

If you're too young to volunteer as a dog walker, there are many other things you can do to help just as these 3 great girls did

I completely missed (not forgot) to add the photo from Sunday of the three girls from the Hon Kong Academy who had raised over $3,000 from holding bake sales (they assured me they had baked all the cakes themselves) and handed over the cheque at Whiskers’n'Paws.  So with apologies for the missed mention, thank you!

Without doubt the summer downturn in adoptions has started while the warm weather upturn in puppy births is making itself evident.  AFCD is crammed with little ones, almost all – surprisingly – very friendly and with wagging tails.  This means that they have either been born to owned dogs or have lived around people somehow.  The latest large batch came in from Cheung Chau, an island that I really think must be overflowing with abandoned and unwanted dogs and puppies if the numbers that I see are anything to go by.  Trap, Neuter and Return (TNR) is desperately needed on Cheung Chau, but it’s illegal.  I still find it hard to believe, but this is a fact.  Can you imagine what a difference it would make if people could simply bring in stray dogs (to the SPCA clinic there), have them desexed and then put them back?  It would make a huge difference to me for a start.

Here’s the thing about TNR, an issue which for years has been bounced back and forth during which time thousands of puppies have been born and just as many have died.  Ask one question, and that is:  Is it better to let stray dogs breed or is it better to make sure they don’t?  It’s as simple as that.  Forget all the other stuff that’s complicates the very easy answer, because of course it makes sense in every single way to have stray dogs desexed.  There isn’t a single reason why allowing them to breed non-stop, and prosecuting those who try to do something about it, is the right thing to do.  The proposed AFCD trial TNR schemes won’t work because the areas are too specific.  Take Lamma as an example.  It’s a small enough island and if TNR is to be tested (although of course it already has been, and very successfully) then it has to be done over the whole island, not one very small place.  That’s doomed to fail because other stray dogs just outside the chosen location will still continue to breed, so how does that help?  Let individuals and organisations take over and dogs can be desexed throughout the entire territory.  What harm will it do?  How can it possibly even be something that needs to be discussed?

Frodo (left) is bigger than Bilbo and he is the one with heartworm

The two new shih tzu/terriers, Bilbo and Frodo, went to Acorn today to have their checks and desexing.  I have already fallen in love with them and they are high up on my “if” list, that’s the one that starts “If I didn’t already have so many dogs”.  What a gorgeous, funny and adorable pair these two are, and now that they are feeling less stressed they’re incredibly cuddly too.  One strange thing is that they seem to be the same age (around two years old) and are very obviously from the same family, so we can safely assume they’re brothers.  One is bigger than the other but their faces and coats (wire-haired) are the same, but one had been desexed (and still had the stitches in) while the other hadn’t, and only one has heartworm.  It’s unusual enough to find small dogs on Hong Kong Island infected with heartworm because most tend to be indoors dogs, but for only one of a pair who have clearly always lived together to be infected is very strange.  And why would only one be desexed?  Luckily the one that needed desexing – Bilbo – was heartworm-free, so he could safely have the operation.  Frodo, the big brother, will have a course of anti-inflammatories before having the heartworm treatment, as this makes the prodecure safer (the treatment itself can kill a dog).  We’re looking for a home for these two gorgeous scruffies but would prefer them to go as a pair because they’re incredibly attached.  If you pick one up, the other wants the same, and they stick to each other like glue.  Who on earth could have given them up in the first place?

Look out for this type of baited food

It appears that the Bowen Road poisoner may be back with the reported death of at least two dogs in the area.  If you’re new to Hong Kong you may not know that for many years someone (or maybe more than one person) has been laying bait laced with a deadly herbicide in the Bowen Road/Black’s Link area, a place very popular with dog walkers.  The poison is fast-acting and the results devastating.  Whoever the poisoner is only does it for short periods and then lays low for a while, long enough for owners to relax and lower their guard.  The safest thing to do is to avoid the area completely, but if you do walk your dog there please keep it on a leash and away from the side of the road where the baited chicken is laid.

As you know I sometimes take other animals from AFCD and today it was two rabbits and a tiny newborn baby.  The adults are beautiful but had obviously been kept in a very small area because the mother, a lop-ear long-hair, was very dirty and with a matted coat.  The father is a smaller size, short-hair and with a brown dappled colouring.  If you can offer a home to any of these bunnies please do let me know.  At the moment the baby must stay with the mother of course.