CITY HALL, Central District, Hong Kong – Many Asian communities have homeless dogs wandering the streets or hiding in nearby hills. In Hong Kong, most such dogs live in the New Territories or on outlying islands.

Why do such dogs exist? Where do stray dogs originate?

Hong Kong Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) community-dog-program co-ordinator Vivian Or recently addressed such questions. She spoke at a public-consultation meeting to consider the need for a trap, neuter, release (TNR) program aimed at precisely such dogs.

Hong Kong has “many, many sources” of wandering dogs. In small villages, far from Tsim Sha Tsui and Central, the animals may be “loosely” owned. “They're active in the village areas by day, but return home at night,” Or said. Most of them aren't vaccinated, de-sexed or registered.

Fully feral dogs (those with no homes at all) usually fear humans and tend to hide. “They may be the offspring of abandoned dogs.”

Construction sites contribute heavily. “Many sites use dogs as a security measure,” Or said. “The dogs aren't registered or de-sexed. When the construction work ends, the dogs get left behind and become strays.”

Meanwhile, some breeders abandon dogs that look unlikely to sell. Other strays were pets abandoned because their humans wearied of them or faced pressure from neighbors or landlords hostile to four-legged friends. Sometimes the cast-out dogs are puppies born to pets never de-sexed.

“Between 2005 and 2010, dog-ownership in Hong Kong increased by 25 per cent,” Or said. “Among all the owned dogs, only 55 per cent are de-sexed.” 

How do dogs survive when fending for themselves? “As the human population rises, so does the amount of discarded waste-food placed in refuse stations, providing food sources for stray dogs,” Or said.

Every stray dog has an individual story of which humans rarely learn more than bits and pieces. Invariably, homeless dogs have one big thing in common – they wander not because of anything they did wrong, but because of what irresponsible people did wrong to them.

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