Hong Kong hikers destroy cows’ food - 17th February 2021

The Lunar New Year has brought us into the Year of the Ox. However, for a herd of cows in Hong Kong, it’s not such a happy new year.

The animals have made their home on Grass Island for generations, sharing the sleepy islet with a dozen or so fishing families.

But with international travel no longer possible for most Hong Kongers due to the pandemic, the island has seen a huge rise in the number of visitors looking to escape the city. The cows' primary food source, grass, has been almost wiped out, as campers hike through the island's once grassy meadows.

The situation has become so dire that Lantau Buffalo Association, an activist group for Hong Kong’s wild buffalos and cows, has stepped in.

Volunteers are feeding the cows on fresh hay collected from other areas of Hong Kong and shipped to Grass Island.

The shortage of grass has led to the cows consuming the campers' waste, as volunteer Jennifer Wai explains.

Jennifer Wai: "We, we saw cows going to the bins and hunting for food. And we saw them eat buckets of like, candy that are, like, still wrapped in bottle, and they ate the whole thing. Yeah. And, it was, it was heartbroke, heartbreaking to see."

Association chair Ho Loy explains the cows are already suffering from the lack of grass.

Ho Loy:"Many of the cow you can see that they have like a strange, swollen stomach, which mean they have a certain amount of plastic in their, in their digestion system already."

The work of the association also includes educating hikers to be eco-responsible. Volunteers encourage visitors not to dispose of their rubbish on the island.