Think pets should be allowed on the MTR?
Jeremy Tam does, and the Civic Party lawmaker tested the waters recently by taking a toy pup for a train ride around Hong Kong.
The effort was part of the legislator’s push to get the MTR to designate carriages for passengers with pets, which also involved a trip to Taiwan, where commuters and their creatures can travel on public transport together.
Tam’s seeking public support via a survey (Chinese only) and last year tabled a motion at a Legislative Council subcommittee calling on the government to push the city’s transport operator to make services more pet-friendly, reported HKFP.
To boost the issue’s profile, the lawmaker released a video on social media demonstrating, with the help of a little dog called “Dai Dai”, how easy it is to get around Taiwan’s capital of Taipei with a four-legged companion.
The city’s metro system allows dogs as long as they’re placed in bags.
Tam also took Dai Dai for ice cream to one of the many restaurants that have become pro-pet thanks to an initiative by Taipei’s mayor Ko Wen-je to create “more animal-friendly spaces” in the city.
Dai Dai was even allowed to ride on a bus, and didn’t even need to be put inside a bag.
Compare that to Hong Kong where pets — apart from guide dogs — are not allowed to travel on the MTR, and can only travel in private cars, taxis, and some minibuses.
In an experiment, Tam took the train with a dog bag from Prince Edward — an area with a lot of vet clinics — to Choi Hung station, to see whether it might raise some eyebrows.
People seemed unbothered, it was probably because his companion was a toy, rather than an actual dog.
In the video, Tam suggests designating two train carriages — one on each end of the train — as pet-friendly carriages on weekends for owners to travel with their pets, allowing those adverse to animals to still avoid them.
The lawmaker says it’s hard to believe that so many Hongkongers would be so unanimously against allowing all animals onto the MTR.
Tam’s call for pet-friendly carriages was echoed by commenters who have called Hong Kong “backwards” in terms of allowing for pet-friendly spaces, with others adding “pets have rights too.”
