In the wake of an incident where a 61-year-old local woman was bitten by a dog near Coloane’s Concórdia Industrial Park on Tuesday morning, the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) said in a follow-up statement yesterday that between early last year and the first quarter of this year, the bureau removed nearly 17,000 items of leftover food resulting from residents’ feeding stray animals, totalling over five tonnes in weight.
Yesterday’s IAM statement came after the bureau issued a statement on Tuesday saying that through regular inspections and trapping operations at locations where stray animals are frequently spotted, the bureau captured 568 stray dogs across the city last year, an increase of 50 percent from 2023.
Yesterday’s statement said that various neighbourhoods and public parks as well as Coloane’s hills have been affected for a long time by the issue of leftover food resulting from residents’ feeding stray animals. The statement said that the waste often contains raw rotten meat and kitchen scraps, which are breeding grounds for mosquitoes, rodents and other pests, harm animal health, and facilitate the spread of diseases, severely affecting environmental hygiene and public health.
The statement underlined that the bureau has been strengthening inspections and clean-up efforts, adding that between early last year and the first quarter of this year, the bureau cleared nearly 17,000 items of leftover food, totalling over five tonnes in weight. At Mong Ha Hill Municipal Park in the peninsula alone, the statement said, the bureau removed nearly 1.7 tonnes of leftover food during the same period.
The statement urged residents not to feed stray animals, adding that in addition to severely affecting environmental hygiene, leftover food will also attract stray animals to gather, posing risks to public safety and health.
This undated handout photo released by the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) yesterday shows an IAM inspector removing leftover food put down for stray animals at an unidentified location.
This undated IAM handout photo released yesterday shows leftovers for stray animals at another unknown location.
