Nature & Animals….. - HereNow4U.net

Animal Crusaders • Commemorative Issue • October 2010SPCA - Hong KongPrevention of Cruelty toAnimals in Hong KongFifty years ago Hong Kong waslike many poorer cities with openfrontedshops selling meat orgroceries next to dirty repairgarages for cars, and we had veryfew laws to cover hygiene andhealth. The hills were coveredwith thousands of self-built hutsand even some undergroundpassages where refugees fromChina lived in metal cages. Myhusband was in the army and somany of the army wives helpedwith relief for the poor anddisadvantaged as well as givingEnglish lessons to the localpeople.To guard their possessions thesquatters in the hills would breedhuge dogs which slept in theirhuts at night and were tied upinside when they went to work.Quite often the dogs escaped andcame down the hills, many toroam around the railway lines inKowloon.Mrs Lenore Winfield was aCommittee Member of the RoyalSociety for the Prevention ofCruelty to Animals and that iswhen she recruited me (areluctant volunteer at the time)to go around these open-frontedbutchers shops and ask for boneswith a little meat on for theseanimals. We scraped the meat,put it into newspaper parcels andwent to the fields where the dogswere gathered near the railwaylines. She then would call out1 2“Boys, Boys” – I would fling theparcels as far as I could and runfor my life.That was in l963 and I have beena volunteer for the Society eversince, during which time I haveserved on the ExecutiveCommittee, been the lastPresident of British rule and thefirst of Chinese Rule and a Trusteefor the last 20 years. I am now 85and there is still plenty of usefulwork that I can do and expect todo for many years to come.~ Pamela D. Barton1 Prevention of cruelty toanimals2. & 3 Dogs awaiting adoption4 Cats awaiting adoption5 Mobile animal care unit34 517