The Legislation of Service Dogs in Hong Kong

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At the beginning of the year 2011, the first guide dog was introduced in Hong Kong which indicated a huge leap in the progress of promoting dog servicing in the region. Meantime, it is expected to provoke a controversial debate on the appropriateness in letting dogs assist in various occupations. The establishment of the issue revealed the requirement for the city to adapt a novel approach in providing social services by using working dogs. In definition, a service dog is a dog that has been trained since puberty by qualified instructors in order to develop a strong sense of obedience and abstinence so that it is capable of providing guidance and service for humans.

Nevertheless, there is presently no direct regulation regarding the working dogs in Hong Kong which leads to certain inconvenience, usually the limitation of the accessibility of animals on communal and condominium facilities, in their work. Although critics may express their concerns in the safety and high training cost of using dogs as caregivers and remain sceptical about the adeptness of dogs, there are evidences characterising that dogs are extremely helpful to human in certain disciplines. Therefore, legislation is necessary for enhancing the working efficiency of the service dogs.

Ability of dogs in clinical diagnosis

Dog possesses a sophisticated nose which allows it to discriminate the odour of heterogeneous chemicals. This idiosyncratic is enormously beneficial to medical diagnosis of potential cancer patients.

However, one may challenge the accuracy for dogs to adjudge a cancer patient as research results in early years showed a fluctuation in the estimated percentage of hits for a dog to identify individuals with malignant tumours. It is undeniable t...

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...b opportunities since qualified trainers are cardinal in nurturing the canine workers. With all points considered, the legislation of service dogs is fundamentally essential to augment the effectiveness of their work as it can ameliorate the problem confronting by the dogs due to the existence of a no-pet policy in some territories.

Works Cited

Bedwell-Wilson, W. (2009). Constant companions. Dog world. 94 (12), 20-36.

Census and Statistics Department. (2008) Thematic household survey report no.34. Hong Kong

Dogs sniff out cancer. (2005). Current Science, 90(9), 14. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

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Tanick, M. H. (2007). A therapy dog disservice. Dog World, 92(7), 12. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

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