In the first of her two-part series on the place of household pets in Hong Kong’s social life, Joyce Yip does a stocktaking of how our furry friends are being treated in public spaces.
Win some, lose some
Most pet-friendly shopping malls in Hong Kong insist that the pets brought into their premises be made to wear a muzzle or carried in a stroller or bag, or held on a leash. For instance, leashed dogs of any weight are allowed to walk across the common spaces inside the IFC mall, especially since these serve as a vital link connecting the ferry terminals to the hub of Central’s business district. However, a number of pet owners complain that security guards have coerced them into carrying their pets while passing through the mall’s common areas.
When owners bring pets to hotel staycations, often both end up staying mostly confined to their room, with limited access to the property’s public spaces. In restaurants, pets are restricted to al-fresco dining areas, as per the guidelines of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.
Janelle Chan, an assistant professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management, co-authored the 2023 paper “Traveling with Pets: Designing Hospitality Services for Pet Owners/Parents and Hotel Guests”. She reveals that an additional 25 to 40 percent of time and effort is required to clean up hotel rooms previously occupied by animals. Other challenges before the hospitality industry include setting clear boundaries between guests with and without pets. Some hotels offer separate elevators and check-in counters to pet owners, but most of their dining outlets remain off-limits to four-legged guests.
“In general, Hong Kong is not very pet-friendly,” Chan says. Most of the city’s commercial establishments won’t adopt pet-friendly measures at the cost of inconveniencing patrons, she points out. “Sure, the number of pet owners is increasing, but the market share is not big enough to disrupt these businesses’ regular customers. That’s why you don’t see a lot of commercial outlets eager to develop pet-friendly facilities.”