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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2020-08-21 06:30
Last update date: 2020-08-21 06:30In recent years, the rights and interests of animals have been repeatedly concerned by governments. In addition to preventing animal cruelty and ensuring that animal lives are not threatened, some foreign policies will even more aggressively consider animal welfare and require pet owners to take clearer and more active responsibilities for their pets. Recently, German Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner said that he would consider introducing a new law requiring domestic dog owners to walk their dogs twice a week.
After the German authorities announced such content as "walk the dog twice a day" and "each time not less than an hour", there are also some domestic disputes. For example, some local people said that they did not want to take their dogs for a walk twice a day in the hot summer, and some people expressed concern about how to enforce the law. "The neighbors will suspect that my walk time is too short and call the police?" Some cat owners are more worried about changing every week in the future. The frequency of cat litter is also restricted by law. But no matter what, the German legislative proposal is positive. From the perspective of animal protection and people's quality of life, the general direction is desirable.
Long working hours in Hong Kong are like luxury
Germany plans to introduce new laws, based on research in Germany that found that more than 9 million dogs in the country did not get enough exercise time to interact with external stimuli, such as interactions between dogs and other animals, nature or human activities. Policy makers can consider animal welfare more aggressively instead of limiting animal rights to "survival or above". This aspect is worth learning when Hong Kong formulates the Animal Welfare Law, and introduces provisions specifying the care responsibilities of pet owners to improve The living conditions of animals.
However, it is quite difficult to implement similar laws in Hong Kong. Imagine that in addition to requiring dog owners to walk their dogs, Germany also plans to prohibit long-term dog bans. It is forbidden to leave dogs alone at home all day. It may also require its owners to take care of the "hairy child" several times a day. Dog owners in Hong Kong do not want to, but Hong Kong has long hours of work and pets are generally prohibited in offices.
What can Hong Kong learn?
The German example may "go too far ahead" and Hong Kong cannot accept all orders, but its aggressive attitude towards animal protection is still worthy of reflection by the local authorities. Hong Kong has been promoting the legislation of the "Animal Welfare Law" for a long time. On the one hand, the Fisheries, Conservation and Conservation Department should promote legislation as soon as possible to protect the basic welfare of animals, but on the other hand, the German example also shows that at the same time improving animal life, legislation alone is actually difficult to achieve.
The German report pointed out that dogs need to have sufficient activity and sufficient external stimuli. Compared with Germany, the conditions for keeping dogs in Hong Kong are quite severe. Residents in Hong Kong generally have limited living space. Dogs are naturally not enough to stay in their houses. Dog owners need to take their dogs out for a walk to ensure that their dogs have enough activity.
Hong Kong has environmental restrictions in Hong Kong, and it is difficult to propose an aggressive animal protection policy like Germany, but this is not an excuse for the slow pace of the authorities. Currently, there are only 48 pet parks that allow dogs to enter. Some dog owners are forced to "secretly" take their dogs to parks where dogs are not welcome. The Leisure and Cultural Services Department can still consider building more pet parks for dog owners in Hong Kong, or even study stopping pets from entering the park. The space for pets in Hong Kong is limited and needs to be improved by the authorities.
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