My source is Dr. John Wedderburn, a medical doctor who works with the Hong Kong SPCA on many projects, including TNR of feral cats. He also has a web page on the zoos of South-east Asia. We spent a morning with him last week and I am sure that his facts are current and accurate.

He stated categorically that unwanted pets were not accepted by the SPCA in Hong Kong.

Incidentally, we visited four zoos in China. It was a horrendous scene and we will be writing about the conditions in our next magazine. Two of the zoos were involved with "training tigers", supposedly for eventual release to the wild by feeding them live prey. A domestic buffalo was fed to an incompetent tiger in Guilin Zoo- a nauseating spectacle involving a long and gruesome death, which seemed to really thrill the cheering fans. Live feeding is apparently illegal in China, but we saw it twice. There seems to be no will to stop it. The zoos involved have been doing this for years, but not a single tiger has been released. There's just nowhere to release them to. The trouble is that you have to witness it to write about it.

We also shared a morning with a Kowloon veterinarian, known as Dr. Tiger due to her work with exotic animals as well as domestic pets, and observed her surgical work. She was so nice to the animals. She even petted and spoke gently to an 11 year-old dog during and after his surgery. What a gem!