For nearly two decades, a serial killer has terrorized one of Hong Kong's most affluent residential areas. Motive and identity remaining a mystery.
The infamous "Bowen Road Poisoner" has claimed dozens of lives, his - or her - most recent victim dying just last month after eating meat laced with a lethal dose of insecticide.
Lethal, that is, to the pet dogs who are the target of this elusive killer.
PHOTO: AFP
The poisoner's name derives from a tree-lined street popular with dog-walkers where many of the victims have died.
And the killer's modus operandi - laying down poisoned meat at the side of the road where dogs are likely to find it - has allowed whoever it is to go undetected since 1989.
The latest victim, a chocolate-brown mongrel adopted from Hong Kong's dog rescuers, died last month within 30 minutes of eating poisoned meat as her owners took her for an early morning walk on Bowen Road.
PHOTO: AFP
Police figures show there have been 72 reported poisonings in the area since 1989, 44 of them fatal, although vets here believe many more such incidents might have gone unreported.
Earlier this year, one Hong Kong dog lover decided enough was enough.
Local resident and dog owner Barry Lea pledged US$6,500 of his own money to allow Hong Kong's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to double its long-standing reward for information leading to the poisoner's arrest.
Lea, a former police officer, said he was inspired to act after the deaths of two Labrador-poodle crosses being trained to work as care dogs.
"I'm a dog lover and I have a Labrador retriever who's a trained search and rescue dog. Why anyone would want to see her dying an agonizing death is beyond me," he says.
"(The case) is in the hands of regional crime units, who usually deal with serious crime. But so far, they've not been able to track the culprit down, and it will be money well spent if they do."
The pledge has injected new life into the SPCA's campaign to raise awareness of the poisonings among dog owners.
The organization says it has switched the focus of its campaign to public education as the poisoner continues to evade police.
SPCA Chief Superintendent Tony Ho, a retired police officer, leads a team of people who regularly patrol Bowen Road, and nearby Black's Link, handing out leaflets and talking to walkers.
"We are trying to educate the dog owners to control their dogs and by telling them what they should do if they suspect the dog may have consumed poison," he says.
"But we also talk to the other road users. We try to explain to them that if they're not happy about the animals they shouldn't put the blame on the animals, it's the owners' fault."
Ho says the patrols have uncovered high levels of anti-dog sentiment in this traditionally pet-loving city.
He believes there may be some ill-feeling, particularly among older people, about dogs fouling the street near sacred spots such as Lover's Rock, where unmarried women go to pray for a husband, in this deeply superstitious city.
"You do get copycat crimes and it's very difficult to say whether it's one person doing this, or more.
"All we can do is do our very best and continue to send our men up more than once a day, and the police are doing almost the same. Trouble is we can't do it for 24 hours, it's a very long stretch of road," Ho says.
Lea believes the poisoner has been "either very clever or very lucky, or a combination of both" to be able to evade detection for so long, while continuing to lay down bait on the popular street.
"The area spreads over several kilometers and while it's a well trod path there are lots of twists and turns and there are times when it's pretty quiet," he says.
There have been frequent complaints that Hong Kong police do not take the killings seriously enough, although the force has devoted considerable resources to the case, at one point drafting in a Swedish pet specialist to profile the serial killer.
Lea, a long-term Hong Kong resident, fears the poisonings are now beginning to harm the city's image.
"It's been going on for a very long time now, far too long, and a lot of animals have been killed or injured," he says.
"But it goes further than the killing of innocent creatures. The Australian Chamber of Commerce recently published an article on living in Hong Kong that included a warning about the dog poisoner.
"When you get that kind of thing it starts to reflect quite badly on the place as a whole."
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
RSS