Pawsitive Impact: Inclusive Pet Parks and Well-being in HK

I have a dog called Saisai. She is cute and lovable, and she is such a wonderful companion. She accompanied me through many tough times, such as the Zoom Schooling and quarantine orders during the pandemic.

When we take Saisai for walks, people cannot resist her cuteness and stop by to pet her. She will roll over on the ground and let them rub her belly. Because of her friendliness, we always have a chance to stop and talk to people we have never met before. This was how we met an elderly lady who lived by herself. Though she said she felt lonely, she always laughed joyfully when she stroked and petted Saisai. And we got a chance to talk to her and learn about her needs.

I feel sad knowing that there are many elderly people like her in Hong Kong. I also feel sad when we can't bring Saisai to any of the nearby parks to exercise and meet people because dogs are not allowed in most parks in Hong Kong. I started to ponder if Saisai could bring happiness to a lonely elderly lady, and if the lady needs to go to parks to exercise anyway, what if we open more parks to dogs so they can exercise with the elderly together and bring them joy?

Currently, there are two types of parks open to dogs in Hong Kong: (1) Inclusive pet parks, where dogs on a leash can share a small portion of the community parks with humans; the other is called (2) dog parks, which are built entirely for dogs to roam freely and run around in a limited space.

According to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and CSDI Portal data, there are close to 1700 parks in Hong Kong, but only 175 of these are inclusive pet parks (shown on the map on the left). This means that out of every ten parks in the neighborhood, only one park has open access to dogs.

As you can see, only 1 in 10, there are not so many. Most of the time, when you go to a park, you will see the "No Dogs Allowed" signs, as shown in the pictures below.

For comparison, in a city similar to Hong Kong in Asia called Singapore, all 320 of their community parks are inclusive pet parks.

In the current situation in Hong Kong, there are two major problems.

Problem number 1: There are not enough inclusive pet parks. Dog owners like me have only a few options to bring our furry friends to exercise or enjoy nature.

Problem Number 2: The elderly population is growing fast and they are vulnerable to health and emotional issues.

According to the latest data from suicide prevention organization Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong, 1,080 suicides were recorded in 2022, and over 40 percent of the cases involved people aged 60 or above. That was an increase of 6.95 percent compared to 2021. (Source:  The Standard Hong Kong ). So, the elderly loneliness issue is real.

Using the CSDI Portal, I put together the above map. It shows the top 5 most elderly-populated districts (in brown): Sha Tin, Kwai Tsing, Eastern, Kwun Tong, and Yuen Long. From the map, we can see that Hong Kong has responded to the aging problem by building more elderly community centers in these districts. However, if you look closely at the map, Shatin Tin, Kwun Tong, and Yuen Long have a very small number of inclusive pet parks. We are talking about only tens of inclusive pet parks in hundreds of community parks in these areas.

So, what is the solution to both Problem Number 1 (lack of parks for dogs) and Problem Number 2 (growing elderly population who needs emotional support)?

According to my research, simply interacting with dogs has been shown to release oxytocin, a hormone that reduces stress and promotes happiness (Source:  John Hopkins Medicine ). In fact, 71 percent of older people were happier after owning a dog because they long for intimate and loving companionship after living lonely or depressed.

Studies show that dogs reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, ease loneliness, encourage exercise, and improve overall health (source:  National Alliance on Mental Illness ).

People with dogs tend to have lower blood pressure and are less likely to develop heart disease. This is why so many volunteer groups try to organize dog visits (such as Dr. Paws) or resident dogs to elderly centers in Hong Kong, as reported in a piece of recent news (Source:  South China Morning Post ).

So in theory, having more inclusive pet parks in places like Sha Tin (the most elderly-populated district in Hong Kong) could improve people's overall emotional well-being. Since both the elderly and dogs need exercise, opening access in already-built community parks to dogs seems to be the easiest and most logical solution to both Problems Number 1 and 2.

Since Sha Tin is the most densely populated district of elderly people, let's look at Sha Tin city center as an example using CSDI Portal data. Looking at this map below, you’ll see 5 grey doggy spots in the city center area. I can only take Saisai to play in these five inclusive pet parks (grey spots). But there are also 14 green marks. These are community parks where dogs can’t go yet. You can click on them to see their locations and details.

If we open these 14 community parks (green spots) to dogs, we can have a total of 19 fun places for dogs and the elderly to exercise together in Sha Tin city center area. That’s a lot more! This means more people, like the lonely elderly woman and those who have dogs, can meet and have a good time, making everyone happier!

There may be challenges to turning community parks into inclusive pet parks in Hong Kong.

One of them is that we should be considerate of the people who are scared of dogs. So an ideal inclusive pet park should fit everyone's needs to be called "inclusive".

As you can see from the picture on the left (a model I built), this is my proposed ideal inclusive pet park to address this challenge. There should be at least two entrances: one for dogs and humans not scared of dogs (red arrow), and another for people who are scared of dogs (purple arrow). Those who want to avoid dogs can directly enter the no-dog area of the park (marked in pink).

The low right corner (marked in red) of the park can be a Free-roaming Dog Garden equipped with fences, double gates, dog poo collection boxes, and dog drinking fountains, like many of our current dog parks in Hong Kong.

The central area (marked in green) will be designated the Human-Dog Interactive area, similar to our current inclusive pet parks, where humans and dogs can exercise and interact. This area should include many benches for people like the seniors to sit down and play with the dogs. Plenty of grassy areas will also encourage humans and dogs to play on them.

As a real-life example, I visited an ideal inclusive pet park in Sha Tin called Shing Mun River Promenade Garden No. 3. It has everything, including a dog shower area, a dog toilet, poop collection boxes, some grassy patches, and a double-gated free-roaming pan.

There are also nice facilities that I think can promote elderly-dog interaction in this park, including many benches and shading areas.

I can't hope for the luxury to turn every community park into ideal dog heaven like Sha Tin Shing Mun River Promenade Garden No. 3. All dog owners will probably agree with me that the most essential facilities are those in my ideal inclusive dog park model: poop collection boxes to keep the park clean, and drinking fountains to keep our furry friends hydrated.

PAWsitive Impact: Inclusive Pet Parks and Well-being in HK - I hope my story can spread and my suggestions can be put into practice territory-wide. So that dogs in our city can get more space to exercise and the elderly can have more opportunities to play with them. Back to my story in the beginning, if a dog like Saisai can make a lonely elderly woman happy regularly, imagine what 300 thousand dogs in Hong Kong can contribute to the well-being of our elderly citizens. Let's give them more places to exercise and play together. This should make everyone happier and healthier. Let's do it!

The End