Our Work & Reports

Urbanisation in the New Territories has a big impact on domestic cattle that used to help farmers plough their land, rendering them useless and turning them into strays. Many of these feral herds continued to live and breed in rural areas. Recently, some stray cattle settling in a certain village roamed around on roads and got into a busy neighbourhood, leading to local complaints about the nuisances caused. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (“AFCD”) then launched an operation to capture stray cattle in the village concerned, which sparked dissatisfaction among animal rights activists who champion cattle welfare. Some of these volunteers complained to our Office against AFCD, querying the reasons for capturing these cattle and expressing concerns about the treatment of the cattle captured. After examining the case, our Office believed that positive communication was the key to resolving the conflict and therefore attempted to mediate between the volunteers and AFCD.

During the mediation process, our Office related the volunteers’ concerns and queries to AFCD to facilitate a focused response. AFCD explained that they did not capture the cattle simply because of the complaints, but also out of concern over potential collisions between cattle and people or vehicles due to stray cattle’s roaming around on roads or getting into busy neighbourhoods, which could endanger the cattle themselves, the public and traffic safety. AFCD also undertook to take proper care of the cattle captured by closely monitoring their health conditions and offering them medical care as well as adequate food and space. Moreover, the Department indicated that it would assist the village concerned as far as practicable in identifying suitable locations for resettling the stray cattle, thereby resolving the issue in the long run.

The volunteers accepted AFCD’s explanation and were pleased that through mediation by our Office, all their concerns and queries were passed on to AFCD and the Department responded in a positive manner.