The Chinese have long been accused of devouring “anything that moves,” including meals made from our beloved canines.
However, the fishing village of Sai Kung in the New Territories of Hong Kong has embraced dogs as members of the family with a passion bordering on obsession.
In the 1970s, the Hong Kong government actively discouraged the population from having too many children. The policy worked, and today, Hong Kong has one of the world’s lowest birth rates 0.7 per woman of childbearing age (2022) far below the replacement rate of 2.1. To compensate, locals have taken to spoiling their pet woofers as an integral and substitute part of the family.On Sundays, locals parade their pooches in prams along the picturesque waterfront, where they join their human “parents” for exercise and even lunch at the tables of seafood restaurants. The town is awash with dog boutiques where you can buy your precious pooch the latest fashions, and even a doggy bakery offering individual doggy pies and other freshly baked treats.
Lavish attention is paid to grooming, and competition is fierce just like with human babies.
About Brian Cassey
Long based in the northern tropical city of Cairns, Australia, Brian Cassey was born in London, UK, and received his first camera at the age of eleven a VP Twin 127 Bakelite camera purchased for 2/6d at Woolworths on the Isle of Wight. His earliest photographs captured scenes of ocean liners departing Southampton and the island’s steam trains.
During his formative and eventful teenage years, he both played and photographed football (the round-ball world game). His sports images, along with a selection of news photography, were regularly published in London’s metro and suburban press before he relocated to Australia.He currently works for numerous Australian and international media outlets including newspapers, wire services, and magazines primarily covering news, features, and sports.
Among the major news stories he has covered are: the 1998 tsunami disaster in Sissano, northern Papua New Guinea; the evacuation of refugees from East Timor in 1999; George Speight’s coup in Fiji and the World Economic Forum riots in Melbourne in 2000; the victims of the 2002 Bali bomb blasts; the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami disaster in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, Thailand, and Myanmar; Cyclones Larry (2006), Yasi (2011), and Jasper (2023), which caused devastation in northern Queensland, Australia; and Australia’s detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, in 2013, 2016, and 2017. [Official Website]
