Great news for dog parents! On Wednesday, Hong Kong’s chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu delivered his fourth Policy Address, and one of the initiatives announced is the introduction of a new licensing system for food premises to make restaurants more dog-friendly. It’s a huge improvement upon the current system, as legal health and hygiene restrictions mean that only guide dogs are permitted inside restaurants.
Under the new measure, licensed restaurants can allow dogs on the premises, and operators must clearly display their pet-inclusive permit to customers. It’s expected that the first group of pet-friendly eateries will welcome dogs to their shops by mid-2026.
Government statistics show that 400,000 cats and dogs are kept as pets by more than 240,000 households in the city – it’s a huge consumption market that includes pet food and products, healthcare, insurance, grooming, and more. “Pet-friendly restaurants will create new business opportunities for the industry,” Lee said, expressing alignment with existing examples of pet-friendly arrangements within the business sector.
Just last month, the MTR Corporation announced that its Light Rail routes in the New Territories will continue to allow cats and dogs onboard its trains under a pet-friendly travel programme, which was officially rolled out in September after a trial period earlier this year. Hong Kong bus operator KMB also runs a limited pet-friendly bus service to popular destinations within the city, with new routes added in July.
Allowing dogs into restaurants is definitely a step in the right direction to make Hong Kong a more pet-friendly city, but more can be done to create a more inclusive environment for our furry friends. Currently, not many shopping malls allow pets on their premises. Major forms of public transportation in the city are still off-limits to pets, so the locations of the forthcoming pet-friendly restaurants and how to get to them with a dog in tow remain top-of-mind concerns in the practical implementation of the new licensing system. We hope these existing pet-inclusive initiatives will rapidly pave the way for all major transportation providers and businesses to allow pets to accompany their humans!
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