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Important Notice - Temporary permission rule for dog keeping in PHEs

The Housing Authority's Subsidized Housing Committee (SHC) made an annoucement on 25 September 2003 regarding the temporary permission of dog keeping in the Public Housing Estates ( PHEs)

The Summary is :

1. Tenants can bring along with them a photo of their exisitng dog to register starting 1st oct 2003. The registration period will be one month.
2.Valid dog license certifying Rabies vaccionation must be produced within 3 months after the registration. A valid desex operation certificate must also be procduced.
3. Tentants must prove that the animal is owned before 1st August 2003.¡
4. Shouldthe tenant fail to produce any valid certifiate, he must make a declaration.

http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200309/25/0925203.htm

Temporary permission rule for dog keeping in PHEs
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Following is issued on behalf of the Housing Authority:

The Housing Authority's Subsidized Housing Committee (SHC) today (25 September) decided to uphold the conditions in its Tenancy Agreement to restrict dog keeping in public housing estates (PHEs).

While the clause on the prohibition of dog keeping is to remain, Members approved to adopt a pragmatic and stringent approach in tackling the problem of unauthorised pet keeping in PHEs, while ensuring that a series of control measures will be in place to ensure public hygiene.

Members agreed that small household pets, including birds (pigeons excluded), hamsters, rabbits, tortoises and aquatic life in PHEs, will be allowed to be kept without registration provided that they do not cause any nuisance. Other pets such as wild lives, exotic animals and domesticated farm animals will however continue to be disallowed.

On dog keeping, a one-off exercise will be carried out in October whereby tenants can register and keep existing dogs under 20 kg in weight. This temporary permission will be granted until the natural death of the dog and is not transferable.

The dog must not be a fighting dog or known dangerous dog or large dog as defined under the Dogs and Cats Ordinance, Cap 167. Tenants have to prove through declaration that the dog has been kept in the premises at the launch of the Marking Scheme to promote estate cleanliness, i.e., 1 August 2003.

"A set of stringent control measures has been devised by the Housing Department to step up control over dog keeping and to ensure that public health and environmental hygiene will not be compromised", said the Chairman of SHC, Mr Ng Shui-lai.

For instance, applications will have to be filed together with supporting documents on licensing, vaccination, micro-chipping and desexing arrangements within three months from the date of registration. There will also be restrictions for tenants to take their pets together in lifts between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. daily.

The approval may be revoked if two complaints of nuisance caused by the pets are substantiated, or tenants are found by estate staff to have committed misdeeds under the Marking Scheme for causing nuisance.

Misdeeds of tenants for keeping unregistered pets or those who allow their pets to defecate in public areas would be subject to five penalty points for each offence under the Scheme. A tenant will be served a notice-to-quit when a total of 16 points have been accumulated in two years.

As cats are considered to create lesser nuisance than dogs, tenants are allowed to keep cats provided the cats are desexed. To facilitate the new arrangements, the grace period for keeping pets granted at the launch of the Marking Scheme will be extended to the end of October.

"The temporary permission rule for existing dogs is a pragmatic approach which allows the Department to monitor the situation closely. This, together with the Marking Scheme, will facilitate a more effective control over the number of pets and the possible nuisance caused," Mr Ng said.

"The arrangement is targeted on existing dogs kept by tenants. Members were convinced that the relevant clause in the Tenancy Agreement and misdeeds under the Scheme should be kept since it is never our intention to relax the ban on dog keeping in densely populated PHEs," he said.

This coincided with the fact that about 70 percent of respondents in a survey conducted by the Department in August said that pet keeping should not be allowed in PHEs, worrying that it would bring an adverse impact on environmental hygiene.

Members, however, also noted the views of pet lovers, in particular their concern about the massive abandonment of large number of dogs by tenants should dogs are not allowed in PHEs.

"We have carefully considered all the views gauged during the grace period and tried best to balance the interests of all parties concerned, including those who may or may not keep pets at home," he noted.

Mr Ng called on pet keeping tenants to exercise self-discipline and observe the no-nuisance rule seriously or they face the risk of losing their tenancy.

End/Thursday, September 25, 2003

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last update : 05 Nov 2003