Sai Kung Stray Friends’ battles with the establishment are dragging on as the Town Planning Board has deferred its hearing for two months, Founder Narelle Pamuk said. The latest issue raised by the Government is noise-reduction plans for the new rescue centre at Tin Liu.
Narelle, an Australian with a doctor husband and two adult children, runs SKSF kennels with two full-time staff and one casual worker. “The owner of our Ho Chung valley kennels has raised the rent to $52,000 per month. This will be so difficult for us to cope with. We need donors,” Narelle said.
The charity now looks after more than 75 dogs with monthly costs of $140,000. “We are constantly begging,” she said. “Eighty dogs is the maximum we will take into our kennels, because it is hard work and people become burned out. Also we need to have a good living standard for the dogs”.
SKSF has taken in many dogs from people in distressed situations. An old couple going into a nursing home gave them eight dogs. A man with pancreatic cancer surrendered three pets. 
“Adoptions of dogs six months and older are very slow. People love a cute puppy but all our dogs were puppies once,” Narelle said. SKSF averages only two or three adoptions per month. “We need people willing to foster.”
Seven days a week Narelle takes meals to 12 dogs and a cat who live in a village close to Hebe Haven. She has made a shelter for six who live together while the others are “loosely owned” by villagers.
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