Amidst the final crush of another holiday shopping season, pet shops are filled with kittens, puppies, and other animals. I was in Tunglowan in Hong Kong and passed a whole street of small pet shops, crammed with kittens, puppies, some large dogs in cages unable to even stand up in, with inadequate access to water and proper hygiene. The sad faces of puppies and kittens pressed listlessly or with the enthusiasm of lingering hope, against the metal wire, the desperate energy of puppies confined to a glass and metal fish tank size cage, was heartbreaking.
TC88 wrote to HKSPCA, HK Dog Rescue, Save HK’s cats and dogs . This kind of cruel, inhumane, and sad treatment of these animals needs to be stopped. This situation is also feeding the problem of abandoned animals and adoption problems arising due to the traumatized history of these animals. They may also be presenting health risks to humans given the disease breeding conditions they are kept in.
Here’s a gift to the animals:
- Write to your local animal protection societies and press them to take more aggressive action to investigate these shops, confiscate abused animals, and provide them the loving and responsible homes all animals deserve.
- Write to international animal protection groups such as Humane Society International--this problem exists in many parts of the world.
Don’t buy, Adopt! Support your local animal shelters, or pet stores that offer adoptions, like Petco that started an 
adoption program in 2004; its foundation also donates to support animal charities.
Support groups that are addressing the causes as well as rescuing, caring for animals, and helping them find good loving homes.
See my blogroll for links!
Support shopping sites that donate to animal rescues, such as The Animal Rescue Site store
Once again, you have hit the nail on the head. The issue of pet shops is one that I feel very strongly about, and occasionally makes headlines in the SCMP. The government’s attitude is reprehensible, treating pets like any other commodity and bowing to pressure from the shop owners (which is very odd, given how small a part of the Hong Kong economy they are). As a result, many if not most of the animals in those shops are sick and many die within days of leaving the shop. The stores themselves are petri dishes for disease, and the conditions of the breeders in the mainland are tragic. It is heart breaking, as you say.
The points you make on your blog are excellent. I would add the following, based on my minimal research:
I’ve come to the belief that Hong Kong should 1) tighten the regulation and supervision of the import of animals, 2) make spaying mandatory for pets, 3) introduce much tighter licensing for who can sell pets and under what conditions for the animals, and 4) (and this is more of a controversial one) have some kind of licensing for new pet owners. There is, as you saw, a very cavalier attitude towards pets here. It’s too easy to buy pets here, and it’s way too easy to sell them.
Thanks HK Pet Lover! Let’s do what we can to make a difference — all of us who care!