LCQ10: Dog keeping in public rental housing

LCQ10: Dog keeping in public rental housing 
Question:
 
     The Hong Kong Housing Authority has, since 2003, implemented a one-off “temporary permission” arrangement for dog keeping (the arrangement) whereby public rental housing (PRH) tenants who have been keeping dogs before August 1, 2003 are allowed to register with the Housing Department (HD), and their dogs can continue to be kept only after their applications are approved, and they are not allowed to register any new dogs thereafter. Although the arrangement has been in place for nearly 22 years, it has been reported that quite a number of PRH tenants are still keeping dogs without authorisation. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the current number of PRH tenants who have registered with and obtained approval from HD for keeping dogs lawfully; 
Reply:
 
President,
 
     In formulating the policy of animal keeping in Public Rental Housing (PRH) estates, the ultimate consideration of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) is to achieve a harmonious community whereby different interests of all PRH residents are being respected at large. While under the current policy and as stipulated in the Tenancy Agreement signed between the HA and the tenant that the tenant should not keep any animal in the premises without the prior written consent of the landlord (HA), in consideration of residents with special needs, such as visually impaired/hearing impaired residents who need to keep guide dogs, or for residents who are recommended by medical practitioners to keep companion dogs for mental support, tenants may submit written applications to the HA. The HA will consider approving such applications at its discretion, subject to the principle of not causing nuisance.
 
     In May 2003, the HA introduced the Marking Scheme for Estate Management Enforcement in Public Housing Estates (Marking Scheme), and “Keeping animal, bird or livestock inside leased premises without prior written consent of the Landlord” is one of the misdeeds that will result in points allotment under the Marking Scheme which applies to dogs. The HA subsequently implemented the “Temporary Permission Rule” (TPR) in November 2003 as a one-off measure to allow eligible PRH tenants to continue to keep small dogs that had been kept in PRH flats before August 1, 2003 until the dogs passed away. At present, all dogs which were allowed under the TPR had passed away.
 
     The reply in response to the question raised by the Hon Lee Chun-keung is as follows:
 
(1) As at end-December 2024, about 1 700 service dogs were kept under special approval by the HA.Issued at HKT 12:50

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