The year of 2020 has finally come to an end. In 2021, the World Dog Alliance (WDA) will continue its mission to reform animal welfare policies in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong citizens suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic last year. Meanwhile, some animals in the city underwent tortures from human beings. It is a shame to see how animal abusers walked free with the legal loopholes, and how harsh animal groups were punished by the court. Prominent cases include:
- The Department of Justice refused to prosecute animal abusers, who admitted to throwing 29 animals from a high-rise building in Sham Tseng.
- An animal shelter was heavily fined HKD 230,000 for violating land use regulations.
According to the official statistics provided to the Legislative Council, there were only 27 and 29 prosecuted cases of animal cruelty in 2018 and 2019 respectively. In the first half of 2020, the number of prosecuted cases even dropped to 5, implying that the number of prosecutions is not enough to reflect how serious animal cruelty was.
In 2021, WDA will continue to call for a reform in animal welfare, with harsh punishments on animal abusers and better protection on the rights of animal groups.