Hopes pinned on rules to tackle building contractors' stray dogs

Officials hope tougher rules aimed at contractors who keep guard dogs on construction sites, introduced two months ago, will help tackle the growing problem of strays, legislators were told yesterday.

Stymied in the past in efforts to track down offending owners, the government now requires contractors to license all dogs kept on their sites and have them neutered.

They also have to advise the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department if they find strays, and provide access for officers to take the dogs away. The issue had previously been handled by way of a code of conduct produced by the department that warned contractors not to abandon dogs or let them stray.

Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok said the new measures had been introduced because it had been difficult to identify who was responsible for dogs on sites.

Department statistics show that despite 254 construction site inspections to check on dogs last year, there were no prosecutions. At the same time there had been 480 prosecutions of owners for failing to license their dogs and 130 for letting them stray. The department took in about 3,000 abandoned dogs last year but could not say how many were from building sites.

Although many large contractors had signed the code of practice that prohibits abandoning dogs, a retired subcontractor of government projects said it was common to let them stray after a project was completed.