Since its official launch in February 2021, the Animal Watchers Programme (AWP) has been working comprehensively to protect animals and encourage wider public support to fight against all acts of cruelty to animals. The AWP Inauguration for the 2nd Central Advisory Board (CAB) cum Award Presentation Ceremony was held at the Police Headquarters on March 18. Commissioner Siu Chak-yee appointed 13 CAB members at the ceremony while Chairperson of CAB cum Assistant Commissioner (Information Systems) Kwan Chui-ching appointed 65 AWP Captains.

In recognition of the contribution of respective organisations and members of the public to animal protection over the past two years, the Commissioner presented the AWP Guardian Awards to the Veterinary Medical Centre of City University of Hong Kong for reporting suspected cases of cruelty to animals, to a non-profit animal protection organisation, Tolobunny, for providing intelligence, and to an animal protection volunteer for saving the lives of stray cats and dogs. Director of Operations Chan Joon-sun also presented awards to the Best AWP Captain and the Best AWP Watcher for their outstanding performance in respective Regions over the past two years.

Moreover, the Commissioner officially appointed police dogs Goofy and Happy as AWP Spokesdog Trainees. Together with the other two police dogs, Sunny and Zander, the four AWP Spokesdogs joined the drama City-wide Hunt for Poisoner staged at the ceremony to show the Force’s determination to combat all forms of cruelty to animals.

The Commissioner recalled that the 1st AWP’s educational publicity activities garnered physical participation of over 730 000 individuals and attracted nearly 6.2 million online accesses. The 2nd AWP will focus on enhancing school education by providing large-scale and diverse training programs to cultivate among students positive values of caring for animals to achieve the goal of “Synergy for Great”. The Force will work with the public to spread the message of “Protect animals, Respect Lives”.

Commissioner Siu Chak-yee (back row, eighth right), Director of Operations Chan Joon-sun (back row, ninth right) and Assistant Commissioner (Information Systems) Kwan Chui-ching (back row, seventh right) take photo with members of the 2nd CAB of AWP and the four AWP Spokesdogs.

The Commissioner exchanges views with the CAB member of the AWP Ms Kwong Mei-wan on animal protection.

The drama features the Commissioner who arrests a man for poisoning dogs, demonstrating the Force’s determination to combat cruelty to animals.

The four AWP Spokesdogs join the drama staged at the ceremony.

The AWP Spokesdogs and their trainers posing for photos.

An AWP Watcher takes photo with an AWP Spokesdog.

A child interacts with an AWP Spokesdog.