SPCA and police act on ill-treatment of dogs and goats at “Christian” rehab camp

^{Dr Fiona Woodhouse, deputy director (welfare) at the SPCA}

After Carol Biddell, an animal welfare activist, and a BUZZ team member hiked out to the “Christian” New Being Fellowship camp to check on the condition of ill-treated dogs and goats, they made reports to the SPCA and the police. The latter responded positively saying they would act with the SPCA.

Here is the message from the police:

Thank you for your attention on the animals’ welfare issue.  

SPCA has been contacted and they will arrange a visit to the concerned location.  Sai Kung Police Station will keep liaison with SPCA.

( LI Ming-him ) IP, PSUC 4 SKDIV

And here is a message just received from Dr Fiona Woodhouse, deputy director (welfare) at the SPCA:

Our Inspectorate followed up separately from the police based on the report you passed to us and visited last week. We will touch base with the police on this case and also do a follow up visit in the future (which may be with or without the police).

It can be challenging and extremely frustrating in handling complaint cases such as these because under the current legislation (and its related constraints) because unless there has been a breach of the primary anti-cruelty legislation or the regulations little more can be done except offer advice and to try to persuade owners and keepers to improve their standards of care if there are issues present.

For many years the SPCA has been advocating for improvements to CAP 169 The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance, and in our detailed proposals submitted to the Legislative Council and AFCD, one of our key recommendations is the introduction of the concept of ‘duty of care’. Additionally we propose a mechanism of ‘improvement notices’ which people are legally required to make changes to improve certain things if they are found to be unsatisfactory and deemed to be having (or the potential to have) a negative impact on the welfare of the animals under their care whenever issues or potential issues are observed. This will be a big help in handling similar cases in the future where action needs to be taken as keepers will be obliged to follow advice given – as long as the new legislation is properly drafted ideally making compliance with such notices mandatory and enforceable with sanctions attached to non-compliance!

We also propose including the ability of the Director of AFCD to authorise some approved parties such as individual SPCA inspectors to officially take up certain responsibilities under the new legislation such as frontline advisory roles – including the issuing of improvement notices. Another area of concern is that unfortunately, under the current legislation, there are very limited guidelines to regulate use and treatment of animals by businesses that use or interact with animals as part of their business / operations or programmes (in the case of animal cafes, “edutainment” companies etc or other facilities with animals on site that are used as part of their business model). We hope in the future that more of these businesses will be legally regulated and require licencing, regular inspections and compliance with set minimum standards – we will continue to lobby for this.

The SPCA will continue to lobby and advocate for the amendment to CAP 169 to follow best practice and latest developments in animal protection legislation. Should you be interested in learning more about our proposal on amendments to the CAP 169 submitted to the government back in 2019, please feel free to visit our website: At the same time, we will also advocate for adding additional elements to the CAP 139 Public Health (Animals and Birds) Ordinance to regulate more animal related business by licensing.