Lawmaker-cum-lawyer Vong Hin Fai, who heads the legislature’s 3rd Standing Committee, said yesterday that the government is now proposing that hotels would be allowed to provide pet boarding.
Vong briefed the media after a closed-door meeting of his committee which has concluded its review of the government-initiated bill regulating the city’s veterinarians and their commercial activities with the aim of improving animal protection and animal health control, the outline of which was already passed during a plenary session last year.
Vong said that many members of the committee believe that pet boarding facilities at local hotels would be in line with Macau’s aim of becoming a World Centre for Tourism and Leisure, considering that visitors might take their pets with them to the hotels.
The bill proposes that pet boarding facilities – aka pet hostels – will not be allowed to be located in real estate used for residential purposes, while any pet business facility will not be allowed in any real estate that is not earmarked for such business purposes, such as public facilities and those used for residential or industrial purpose, but hotels would be excluded.
Vong quoted government officials as saying that pet boarding facilities located in hotels would still have to meet the bill’s requirements.
The bill also proposes that a committee consisting of seven veterinary professionals be set up. Vong said that lawmakers had considered the possibility that the veterinary committee should include representatives from animal protection groups.
Under the bill, the future veterinary committee will be allowed to take disciplinary action concerning veterinarians’ regulatory breaches. However, the authority to decide whether to impose a penalty or to file a complaint would always rest with the Municipal Bureau (IAM), Vong pointed out.
Vong also said that the rules for the future operation of the veterinary committee will be set up by supplementary administrative regulations in the future.
In response to some lawmakers’ concern about whether the government would set guidelines on veterinary fees by statute, Vong quoted government officials as saying that it did not wish to intervene in veterinary fees by law, but would leave it to the parties concerned to set their own fees in accordance with the market, and should there be disputes, they could solve them through judicial procedures.
The bill is proposed to come into effect after its promulgation in the Official Gazette (BO) on April 1 next year, and Vong quoted government officials as saying that this was to ensure that there would be sufficient time for the enactment of supplementary administrative regulations and for stakeholders involved to prepare.
The final version of the bill still needs to be passed by a plenary session of the legislature before it can be gazetted.
