Editorial | Hong Kong must strike right balance on imported pets
- To help curb smuggling of animals into Hong Kong, authorities should ease tough restrictions on quarantine rules for cats and dogs
Hong Kong’s health and quarantine measures during the coronavirus pandemic were among the most notoriously stringent in the world.
Thankfully, they are history now. However, the isolation rules for imported pet cats and dogs that preceded the health crisis remain just as tough.
Authorities should speed up plans to ease restrictions to help combat animal smuggling and to draw more talent and encourage former residents to return.
A year after a Post editorial said it was time to loosen the leash on pet imports following the revelation that quarantine for cats and dogs from certain areas may be relaxed, officials said the review was in its final stages.
“We will next explore the implementation details, including discussing arrangements with places concerned, with the aim of rolling out the testing arrangements as soon as possible,” Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said.
Currently, such animals arriving from places where rabies is deemed not under effective control must go through four months of import isolation.
