Students from the sociology department of University of Macau (UM) are organizing a range of activities to promote animal protection awareness among Macao citizens. They are required to organize social activities in an internship program. Between late February and April, they will distribute leaflets, hold seminars and even offer free hugs in an effort to help the stray dogs and cats to find a home.

The Free Hug Campaign was launched in late February. One of the students was dressed up as a mascot dog to give free hugs on campus and go around the city. At the same time, the group also planned to distribute leaflets on animal protection as well as offer advice on animal adoption.

In early April, the students are going to hold a forum about animal protection in UM. The seminar features delegates from several key Macao animal protection institutions, including the Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM), Sociedade Protectora dos Animais de Macau (ANIMA) and Meow Space.

Before the launch of the campaign, the students had visited Meow Space and ANIMA, and found out the living conditions of the stray dogs and stray cats were very poor. “The living space for the animals is not big enough because their funds are limited,” said Jiang Liu, one of the students from the Sociology Department. In fact, Macao animal protection institutions face a lot of difficulties. For example, the number of volunteers is far from enough. “It is difficult to recruit volunteers to adopt stray dogs and cats in Macao. Some pets were abandoned at birth because they were disabled and some pets have infectious diseases,” said Trinity Cui, another student from the department. According to a volunteer who works in Meow Space, people who have a cat already won’t adopt a stray cat, because they are afraid that stray animals may spread infectious diseases. However, people who do not have a cat probably don’t like cats at all. Therefore, the students hope they can manage to recruit more volunteers for the animal protection institutions through the activity.

It is interesting that in the activity a student will wear the costume of mascot dog to give free hugs to attract a big crowd of people. “We want to come up with a good idea, which can draw people’s attention. The mascot dog can attract many passers-by we guess,” said Cui. In fact, this idea came from The Free Hugs Campaign which was first started by Juan Mann on December 1, 2004 when he began to give out hugs in the Pitt Street Mall in central Sydney because he felt depressed and lonely. Moreover, the mascot dog giving out free hugs to people vividly conveys a message that stray dogs and cats really need care as well as a home.