(CNN) -- Getting an introduction to Tiger - a 176 pound (80
kilogram) Tibetan mastiff kept on the roof space of a cramped five-story village
house in Hong Kong's New Territories -- is a complicated process.
The first step is to stand as far
away from his cage as is humanly possible; on just 600 square feet of roof space
-- and with Tiger a barking, growling, slavering ball of caged fury - nowhere is
really quite far enough away.
The next step is for his owners
to check that all doors are secured and that no one the dog doesn't know is
wandering around. One of his owners then enters his cage, slips his chain off
the hook bolted into the wall and wraps it tightly three times around his
hand.
Outside the cage, Tiger undergoes
a personality change.
Now happily around his owners,
he's a placid, bearlike, drooling ball of household pet. Just don't pat him if
you don't know him.
The current vogue for Tibetan
mastiffs in mainland China -- where the nouveau riche have reportedly paid as
much as US$750,000 for prize-winning specimens -- has reached Hong Kong, though
keeping big dogs in a city where the average flat size is just 484 square feet
(45 square meters) presents a dangerous challenge.
Tiger's owners, who did not want
to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, know only too well how much
trouble a Tibetan mastiff can cause.
A pack animal by instinct, and
traditionally bred by Tibetan tribesmen to protect flocks against large wild
predators such as wolves and snow leopards, the breed can be hostile to those it
considers a threat to its family.
"We used to keep Tiger in the
house and he was fine with everyone," his owner told CNN. "But one day, the
front door was left open, he got out and attacked a neighbor. The breed 'locks
on' when they bite and this guy had to have 20 stitches.
"Fortunately for us, the
neighbor understood about dogs and was quite reasonable about the whole thing,
but it cost us $HK2,000 ($257 in U.S.) in fines," he said.
Hong Kong-based vet and animal
behaviorist Dr. Cynthia Smillie said Tibetan mastiffs, apart from being
ill-suited to Hong Kong's muggy tropical climate, are temperamentally a poor fit
in this densely-populated city where a high level of socialization is demanded
of people let alone big dog breeds.
She said of the two Tibetan
mastiff she had dealt with, one had already been put down after attacking a man
and hospitalizing him for several weeks.
"It's a very unsuitable dog for
your average pet owner regardless of whether it's in Hong Kong or anywhere else
-- you need to have a lot of experience to handle these dogs appropriately,"
said Smillie.
"They come from the Himalayas
and because they haven't been bred in the West for a long period of time, they
are still regarded as a primitive breed. So many of their instincts are
hard-wired -- they have that deeply protective guarding instinct and they're
very wary of strangers.
"Unless they're very well
socialized as young dogs, they have the potential to be protective in situations
that are not threatening. They can be quite reactive to perceived threats
although they're very gentle with their own families and even with
children."
Demand for the breed in Hong
Kong -- often fueled by celebrity owners such as rock star Paul Wong formerly of
the Canto rock group Beyond - has fueled a thriving, and sometimes illicit,
business in mainland China.
While Hong Kong, as a non-rabies
zone, has stringent import restrictions on pets, requiring at least four
months quarantine for dogs and cats imported from mainland China, it's not
difficult to find pet shop owners in nearby Shenzhen that can deliver a Tibetan
Mastiff to the front door of a Hong Kong apartment within two weeks.
"Don't worry about taking the
dog over yourself," said a pet shop owner in Shenzhen's Nanshan District, a
high-end strip of pet shops punctuated by the occasional wine cellar, an
accurate pitch to the tastes of China's status-conscious middle class. "We can
put it into the animal hospital next door for two weeks so that you know it's
healthy and then our people will take it over the border for you.
"The couriers have a 'special
relationship' with the border authorities so it's no problem. Depending on the
color you want, a Tibetan mastiff costs about 17,000RMB ($2,900) and I'll have
to check on the delivery.
"Just to give you a rough idea,
a small dog costs about 700 Renminbi to deliver and the price goes up depending
on its size." 700 Renminbi is about $113 U.S. dollars.
Asked if he gets a lot of orders
from Hong Kong, he produces a manila folder with a sheaf of some dozen or more
orders from the special administrative region.
"Actually, pets in Shenzhen are
so cheap that a lot of people make good money selling the dogs again in Hong
Kong. It's a good business for them."
Fiona Woodhouse, the deputy
director of welfare at Hong Kong's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals, says puppy smuggling -- often feeding the demand for status symbol dogs
- represents a real threat to Hong Kong's high standards of public health.
"We are very concerned about
this," she said. "If you go to pet markets in China, people will offer to get
the dog to Hong Kong for you, but in a lot of our advertising we ask pet buyers
not to do that because it's a serious risk.
"Firstly, you don't know how the
animal has been kept or bred and there's a welfare issue for the mother and the
puppies. Secondly, there's a disease risk with normal dog diseases such as
parvovirus and distemper. But thirdly, and more importantly for the whole of
Hong Kong, there's the risk of rabies.
"Hong Kong is rabies-free; we've
got very good quarantine system and vaccination system but obviously smuggling
puts that at real risk," she said.
She says demand for status dog
breeds in Hong Kong comes in waves and normally follows the release of Hollywood
films and popular television shows.
"We might get a lot of huskies
after a film like 'Below Zero', chihuahuas after all the 'Beverly Hills
Chihuahua' films, dalmations after '101 Dalmations.' So we do get cycles, but
they tend to be driven by popular culture rather than pure status over who's got
the most expensive dog," she added.
Ultimately, the problem of space
in Hong Kong has driven home the reality of keeping inappropriate dogs in a
highly urban environment. Woodhouse says the SPCA is seeing fewer instances of
people keeping three Great Danes in 400 square foot flat.
"I can't say we don't get that
anymore, but it's less of a problem than we used to see," she said.
"Way back in the early '90s when
pet keeping was becoming popular -- and a lot of the animals were imported from
overseas into Hong Kong -- you'd see the scenario where people would turn up
with two St. Bernard puppies saying they couldn't afford the vet bills.
"I'd tell them 'Look, if you
can't afford the vet bills, how are you going to afford to feed them? Because I
can tell you, the bills you'll see today will be nothing next to what you'll
have to pay in food in three months' time'."
The first step is to stand as far
away from his cage as is humanly possible; on just 600 square feet of roof space
-- and with Tiger a barking, growling, slavering ball of caged fury - nowhere is
really quite far enough away.
The next step is for his owners
to check that all doors are secured and that no one the dog doesn't know is
wandering around. One of his owners then enters his cage, slips his chain off
the hook bolted into the wall and wraps it tightly three times around his
hand.
Outside the cage, Tiger undergoes
a personality change.
Now happily around his owners,
he's a placid, bearlike, drooling ball of household pet. Just don't pat him if
you don't know him.
The current vogue for Tibetan
mastiffs in mainland China -- where the nouveau riche have reportedly paid as
much as US$750,000 for prize-winning specimens -- has reached Hong Kong, though
keeping big dogs in a city where the average flat size is just 484 square feet
(45 square meters) presents a dangerous challenge.
Tiger's owners, who did not want
to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, know only too well how much
trouble a Tibetan mastiff can cause.
A pack animal by instinct, and
traditionally bred by Tibetan tribesmen to protect flocks against large wild
predators such as wolves and snow leopards, the breed can be hostile to those it
considers a threat to its family.
"We used to keep Tiger in the
house and he was fine with everyone," his owner told CNN. "But one day, the
front door was left open, he got out and attacked a neighbor. The breed 'locks
on' when they bite and this guy had to have 20 stitches.
"Fortunately for us, the
neighbor understood about dogs and was quite reasonable about the whole thing,
but it cost us $HK2,000 ($257 in U.S.) in fines," he said.
Hong Kong-based vet and animal
behaviorist Dr. Cynthia Smillie said Tibetan mastiffs, apart from being
ill-suited to Hong Kong's muggy tropical climate, are temperamentally a poor fit
in this densely-populated city where a high level of socialization is demanded
of people let alone big dog breeds.
She said of the two Tibetan
mastiff she had dealt with, one had already been put down after attacking a man
and hospitalizing him for several weeks.
"It's a very unsuitable dog for
your average pet owner regardless of whether it's in Hong Kong or anywhere else
-- you need to have a lot of experience to handle these dogs appropriately,"
said Smillie.
"They come from the Himalayas
and because they haven't been bred in the West for a long period of time, they
are still regarded as a primitive breed. So many of their instincts are
hard-wired -- they have that deeply protective guarding instinct and they're
very wary of strangers.
"Unless they're very well
socialized as young dogs, they have the potential to be protective in situations
that are not threatening. They can be quite reactive to perceived threats
although they're very gentle with their own families and even with
children."
Demand for the breed in Hong
Kong -- often fueled by celebrity owners such as rock star Paul Wong formerly of
the Canto rock group Beyond - has fueled a thriving, and sometimes illicit,
business in mainland China.
While Hong Kong, as a non-rabies
zone, has stringent import restrictions on pets, requiring at least four
months quarantine for dogs and cats imported from mainland China, it's not
difficult to find pet shop owners in nearby Shenzhen that can deliver a Tibetan
Mastiff to the front door of a Hong Kong apartment within two weeks.
"Don't worry about taking the
dog over yourself," said a pet shop owner in Shenzhen's Nanshan District, a
high-end strip of pet shops punctuated by the occasional wine cellar, an
accurate pitch to the tastes of China's status-conscious middle class. "We can
put it into the animal hospital next door for two weeks so that you know it's
healthy and then our people will take it over the border for you.
"The couriers have a 'special
relationship' with the border authorities so it's no problem. Depending on the
color you want, a Tibetan mastiff costs about 17,000RMB ($2,900) and I'll have
to check on the delivery.
"Just to give you a rough idea,
a small dog costs about 700 Renminbi to deliver and the price goes up depending
on its size." 700 Renminbi is about $113 U.S. dollars.
Asked if he gets a lot of orders
from Hong Kong, he produces a manila folder with a sheaf of some dozen or more
orders from the special administrative region.
"Actually, pets in Shenzhen are
so cheap that a lot of people make good money selling the dogs again in Hong
Kong. It's a good business for them."
Fiona Woodhouse, the deputy
director of welfare at Hong Kong's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals, says puppy smuggling -- often feeding the demand for status symbol dogs
- represents a real threat to Hong Kong's high standards of public health.
"We are very concerned about
this," she said. "If you go to pet markets in China, people will offer to get
the dog to Hong Kong for you, but in a lot of our advertising we ask pet buyers
not to do that because it's a serious risk.
"Firstly, you don't know how the
animal has been kept or bred and there's a welfare issue for the mother and the
puppies. Secondly, there's a disease risk with normal dog diseases such as
parvovirus and distemper. But thirdly, and more importantly for the whole of
Hong Kong, there's the risk of rabies.
"Hong Kong is rabies-free; we've
got very good quarantine system and vaccination system but obviously smuggling
puts that at real risk," she said.
She says demand for status dog
breeds in Hong Kong comes in waves and normally follows the release of Hollywood
films and popular television shows.
"We might get a lot of huskies
after a film like 'Below Zero', chihuahuas after all the 'Beverly Hills
Chihuahua' films, dalmations after '101 Dalmations.' So we do get cycles, but
they tend to be driven by popular culture rather than pure status over who's got
the most expensive dog," she added.
Ultimately, the problem of space
in Hong Kong has driven home the reality of keeping inappropriate dogs in a
highly urban environment. Woodhouse says the SPCA is seeing fewer instances of
people keeping three Great Danes in 400 square foot flat.
"I can't say we don't get that
anymore, but it's less of a problem than we used to see," she said.
"Way back in the early '90s when
pet keeping was becoming popular -- and a lot of the animals were imported from
overseas into Hong Kong -- you'd see the scenario where people would turn up
with two St. Bernard puppies saying they couldn't afford the vet bills.
"I'd tell them 'Look, if you
can't afford the vet bills, how are you going to afford to feed them? Because I
can tell you, the bills you'll see today will be nothing next to what you'll
have to pay in food in three months' time'."
