FEHD and AFCD conduct joint operations against wild animal feeding
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The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) spokesman said today (August 2) that the FEHD, jointly with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), gave education to the public to refrain from feeding wild animals, and conducted blitz operations recently against wild animal feeding and dirtying public places in Mount Parker Road and Greig Road, Quarry Bay of the Eastern District and Shum Wan Road of the Southern District. During the operation, the FEHD initiated prosecution against one person who dirtied public places because of disposal of food remnants in Shum Wan Road. Operation is ongoing.
The spokesman said, “The FEHD attaches great importance to hygiene problem caused by fouling of public places due to wild animal feeding, and has all along been adopting specific measures to improve the hygiene conditions taking into account the actual situation in the areas where wild animals frequently appear.”
The FEHD is mainly responsible for maintaining street cleanliness and environmental hygiene. Apart from providing regular street cleansing services, the FEHD staff would clean the residual feed in public places as soon as possible so as to maintain the environmental hygiene. If members of the public dirty public places while feeding birds or other wild animals (e.g. leaving behind residual feed or food remains on the ground), the FEHD may take enforcement actions against the offenders under the Public Cleansing and Prevention of Nuisances Regulation (Cap 132BK), or may issue fixed penalty notices (FPNs) of $1,500 against the offenders under the Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction) Ordinance (Cap 570).
The FEHD has carried out multiple blitz inspections against feeding of wild animals or birds in the Southern District, with a total of 80 prosecutions, including 20 FPNs and 60 summons, initiated against persons who defied the related cleanliness regulations in the past 12 months. Moreover, the FEHD has also placed 63 specially designed rubbish bins with foot pedals at locations where wild pigs usually appear in the districts, including Pok Fu Lam, Tin Wan, Shum Wan Road, Deep Water Bay, Repulse Bay, Stanley and Shek O, so as to prevent them from pushing over the bins, scattering refuse on the ground, and dirtying public places while looking for food.
On the other hand, in view of the frequent appearance of wild pigs near Braemar Hill in North Point, Mount Parker in Quarry Bay and Leaping Dragon Walk in Siu Sai Wan in the Eastern District, the FEHD has adopted specific measures to improve the hygiene conditions, including deploying staff to step up inspections and street cleansing services, and placing around 10 rubbish bins with foot pedals to replace the regular ones, with a view to reducing the nuisance of wild animals. To tackle issues including feeding of wild animals or birds, the FEHD has also stepped up enforcement in the Eastern District and cleansed public places dirtied by the congregation of wild birds with diluted bleach solution. In the past 12 months, the FEHD issued 17 FPNs against persons who fed wild animals or birds and contravened the related cleanliness regulations in the Eastern District.
The FEHD spokesman stressed that the department will continue to adopt specific measures to improve the hygiene conditions in response to fouling of public places caused by wild animal feeding, and urged members of the public not to feed wild animals.
A spokesman for the AFCD said that feeding activities will wrongly impress the wild animals that there is stable food supply and will attract them to go to urban or residential areas regularly. The AFCD will continue to convey the message to members of the public that not to feed wild animals. In addition, the AFCD will arrange Wild Pig Capture and Contraception/Relocation operations at locations where wild pigs frequently aggregate due to feeding activities, including Quarry Bay and Wong Chuk Hang areas, to control the wild pig nuisance in long run.
