Disneyland has strays killed

2005-07-25 09:40

Hong Kong - Disney came under fire from animal welfare groups on Monday for having stray dogs on its Hong Kong theme park site rounded up and killed.

Around 40 dogs, some of which were used as unofficial guard dogs by construction workers, are believed to have been given lethal injections after being caught by government dog-catchers.

Disney called in dog-catchers to clear the site of dogs in the run-up to the opening of the $3bn theme park in September.

It denies the dogs were used as guard dogs and says they were strays that wandered onto the theme park site during construction work. They were now prowling in packs, a spokesperson said.

However, Hong Kong Dog Rescue, which found homes for three of the 45 dogs rounded up, said Disney should have made more effort to find homes for the dogs.

Alarming

In a letter to Monday's South China Morning Post newspaper, the group's founder, Sally Andersen, said dogs from the Disney site had been turning up in government kennels at "an alarming rate".

"These dogs are friendly and healthy, as they have been fed and cared for by the site workers, but as building work is completed the dogs are simply abandoned and end up in government kennels where they are destroyed," she wrote.

"A company like Disney surely has some sort of moral obligation to take care of the dogs that have been used on their site as guard dogs. It's disgraceful that these dogs are simply thrown away like garbage."

If dogs are unlicensed and not microchipped in Hong Kong, they are usually destroyed within four days in government kennels.

Hong Kong Dog Rescue said Disney made no attempt to contact it before the round-up and said if it had, it could possibly have found more homes for the strays.

Widespread

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said the use of dogs for security purposes on Hong Kong construction sites was widespread.

Dogs would be fed and cared for by workers but then abandoned when the projects were finished and the construction companies would often deny any responsibility for the animals.

A Disney spokesperson said: "At no time has Hong Kong Disneyland or any of its contractors kept the stray dogs at the construction site for guarding or any other purposes.

"However, there have been a number of stray dogs that have wandered onto the site during the process of construction and we have called (dog-catchers) to collect them.

"They moved around in packs and, because of this, it was felt that they posed a safety risk to our casts and construction workers."

- SAPA