Just weeks after the untimely death of bovine icon Mango in a road accident, the Sai Kung cattle community has yet again been visited by tragedy, with police on the hunt for a taxi driver who killed a calf in a hit-and-run accident on Tuesday night.
According to an Apple Daily report, the incident was reported by a woman, surnamed Yeung, who said she saw a green New Territories taxi driving at high speed along Pak Tam Road towards the Wong Shek Pier bus terminus at 9pm on Tuesday.
As the cab approached the village of Pak Tam Au, it struck a calf that was crossing the road along with a herd of at least 10 other cows.
Instead of stopping, the cab continued driving, leaving the calf behind and losing one of its headlights in the collision.
Police arrived at the scene shortly afterwards and found the calf — later confirmed to be 3 months old — dead, with an adult cow trying to nudge it back to its feet as the rest of the herd milled around by the roadside.
Apple Daily also published a video of the dead calf (which some readers may find upsetting), with the woman who called the police describing the driver as “cold-blooded.”
Officers are still looking for the cab driver, and have urged Sai Kung residents to keep an eye out for a green taxi with a missing headlight.
Under Section 56 of the Road Traffic Ordinance, a driver must stop their vehicle when they have been involved in an accident that has harmed an animal — namely domesticated horses, cattle, asses, mules, sheep, pigs, and goats — and report the incident to police as soon as possible. Failure to do so can earn the driver a HK$10,000 (about US$1,280) fine and up to 12 months in jail.
While it’s unclear whether the calf in the video was domesticated, it was more likely a member of the large herd of wild cattle that live around Sai Kung.
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