Press Releases
Government considers pet poultry keeping issues
The Government was studying the feasibility of allowing poultry owners who had
been keeping poultry as pets before the enactment of the backyard poultry ban to
continue rearing their pet poultry under the current legislation, a spokesman
for the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau said today (February 24).
The move was made after taking into consideration poultry owners' wishes to keep
their birds until the very last day of the pets�� life span.
"The proposal to issue special licences to pet poultry owners, however, was not
considered as the best approach to handle the issue," the spokesman added.
But the spokesman stressed that the Government did not encourage people to keep
poultry as pets because of the inherent risk of being infected by various kinds
of viruses from the poultry.
"If the poultry owners really wanted to do so, they must be prepared to take a
very high standard of personal hygiene for their own protection. They are also
requested to do all the necessary biosecurity measures and to avoid causing
disturbances to other people.
"Our past experience indicated that so far pigeons have not been infected by the
H5N1 virus and therefore the Government is considering the suitability of
issuing an exhibition licence, provided they were able to comply with the
biosecurity requirements so as not to pose a public health risk.
"Having said that, we did not rule out the possibility of not allowing pigeons
to be kept as and when there is evidence that the virus is beginning to affect
pigeons," the spokesman added.
The Government was also considering the possibility of lowering the fee level of
such a licence to ensure that it continued to reflect the full cost recovery
principle while recognising the very special nature of this type of activity as
opposed to the normal exhibition licence which is intended to cater for large
scale animal exhibition and performance.
Turning to the Heung Yee Kuk's decision to file a judicial review against the
backyard poultry ban, the spokesman reiterated that the measure did not
constitute deprivation of property.
"With the threat of avian influenza becoming more imminent recently, it is
crucial for the authorities to enact emergency legislative amendments to ban
backyard poultry as soon as practicable.
"Moreover, should the Government decide to offer compensation, backyard poultry
keepers might postpone the disposal of their poultry until payment was made.
This would go against our objective of banning backyard poultry as soon as
possible," the spokesman explained.
The spokesman stressed that in event of an avian influenza outbreak, it would
not only jeopardise public health but also deal a severe blow to the economy. In
the event of an avian influenza outbreak in Hong Kong, the economic growth would
shrink by more than half, as projected by the Lowy Institute for International
Policy, Australian National University, which made the estimate with reference
to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome).
Ends/Friday, February 24, 2006
Issued at HKT 18:48
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