(CN - HKG) Pet owners seeking talks over cattery

[Guest guest]

South China Morning Post

http://hongkong.scmp.com/hknews/ZZZMQLB8GZC.html

Monday, April 8, 2002

by MARY ANN BENITEZ

 

Cat owners unhappy about conditions at the government cattery where

pets must stay during the four-month importation quarantine period are

seeking a meeting with officials to air their grievances.

 

Five people with pets quarantined at the Pokfulam cattery are jointly

seeking to discuss the issue with Director of the Agriculture, Fisheries and

Conservation Department, Thomas Chan Chun-yuen this week.

 

The move follows a complaint in the Sunday Morning Post from owner

Beverley Killeen last month, in which she said the cages were two-thirds the

size of the British standard, with no proper visiting facilities for owners

and no proper exercise runs.

 

She said: " Two owners have noticed personality changes in their pets

and one owner has noticed that their cat has put on weight through lack of

exercise. "

 

Carole Wolfson, whose cats went into quarantine last month, said the

facilities were inadequate. " Dog owners can have privacy. But cat people, we

all have to take turns, " she said.

 

Mrs Killeen, whose two cats are in quarantine after being moved from

Qatar, suggested the department could make available six empty cages at the

Victoria Road dog quarantine kennels to relieve the fully-occupied cattery.

 

To avoid the four-month quarantine, Mrs Killeen proposed going to live

with her pets in France for four months before returning to Hong Kong. The

SAR does not require pets imported from France to be quarantined, unlike

animals from Qatar.

 

However, the department told her that before they went to France, the

cats would require a rabies test, and the test required that the animals be

implanted with an identifying microchip, which Mrs Killeen said would put

her cats under too much stress.