CityU Campus Cats and Animal Lore — the "Residents" of a University with a Veterinary School

City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK / CityU) Composite Information Database · Campus Unofficial-History Module

Reading note (unofficial-history section): This article distinguishes "documented" content from "circulating hearsay"; passages of the latter type are clearly labelled and are not presented as factual assertions. Direct documentary records of CityU campus cats are limited, so this article uses the institutional history of the veterinary school as its main thread, with sourced fragments of campus animal culture woven in where available.

This piece focuses on CityU's animal-welfare culture and the history of its veterinary school. Campus-safety incidents such as the 2016 Sports Centre rooftop collapse and the 2025 canteen clash are covered in the companion piece Record of Major Campus Incidents.

One-line conclusion: City University of Hong Kong is the only institution in Hong Kong — and in Asia — whose veterinary programme holds dual accreditation from both the UK's Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) and the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council (AVBC) (accreditation granted 25 September 2023^※), a status that gives it a distinct place on the spectrum of animal welfare among Hong Kong universities.

In a lift in a teaching building in Kowloon Tong, one occasionally passes a veterinary student walking a training dog — probably the only campus in Hong Kong where this happens. CityU's connection to "animals" did not originate from any famously named campus cat, but from a set of institution-building efforts accumulated since an idea first floated in 2008: a veterinary school, a teaching hospital, a New Territories farm — steps that gradually turned this urban, campus-embedded university into what is, by accreditation level, Asia's leading centre for veterinary education. This article follows that institutional thread, weaving in verifiable and unverifiable fragments of campus animal culture along the way.

# Why is CityU naturally associated with "animals"?

CityU's Kowloon Tong campus is not set amid the green, pastoral grounds of somewhere like Cambridge or UC Davis — it is a typical urban, campus-embedded university: Tat Chee Avenue runs outside its gates, Festival Walk shopping mall sits alongside it, and an MTR exit is within walking distance (see the companion piece in Module 15, Festival Walk Coexistence, the Vertical Campus, and Animal Facilities). In a campus this dense and vertically built, animals became a "discussable subject" largely owing to the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC), established in 2014^※. It is the first — and to date the only — higher-education institution in Hong Kong offering a veterinary degree programme. From that point, CityU's association with "animals" was no longer just the occasional stray cat glimpsed around campus, but an institutional thread.

# Where did the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences come from?

The idea of establishing a veterinary school at CityU can be traced to 2008^※. Shortly after taking office, then-President Way Kuo raised the vision of building a veterinary school in Hong Kong, against a backdrop of successive SARS, avian-flu and swine-flu outbreaks, at a time when the "One Health" concept — the interlinking of human, animal and environmental health — was gaining unprecedented traction in global public health circles. CityU subsequently entered a formal partnership with Cornell University's veterinary school in 2009^※ to jointly plan a curriculum, and submitted its first proposal for a school to the University Grants Committee.

The college was formally established in 2014^※, initially named the "College of Animal Medicine and Life Sciences." In 2018^※, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust donated HK$500 million^※ to support the college's development, and it was renamed the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences accordingly. The six-year Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVM) programme began admitting students in 2017^※, with the inaugural cohort of about 11 graduates^※ becoming eligible for licensure registration in 2023; on 25 September 2023^※, the programme received dual RCVS and AVBC accreditation, the first such case in Asia.

# How far back does CityU's "clinic" actually go?

Many assume CityU's veterinary teaching facilities are a recent development, but the predecessor of the CityU Veterinary Medical Centre can be traced back to 1984^※. At that time, the Peace Avenue Veterinary Clinic (PAVC) opened in Mong Kok and is recorded as the first veterinary clinic in Hong Kong established by a local veterinarian. The clinic was designated in 2001^※ by the Veterinary Surgeons Board of Hong Kong as a training centre for newly graduated veterinarians, and in 2004^※ introduced Hong Kong's first pet MRI machine, a distinction within the industry at the time.

In 2008^※, the clinic relocated to a new, 18,000-square-foot^※ site on Free Land Road, Ho Man Tin, to expand. CityU formally acquired full ownership of the clinic on 1 September 2016^※, making it the clinical teaching base for the veterinary school. On 3 April 2019^※, it relocated again to 339 Lai Chi Kok Road, Sham Shui Po (Trinity Towers), reopening under the name "CityU Veterinary Medical Centre (CityU VMC)" with an expanded floor area of roughly 33,000 square feet across three floors, comprising 22 consultation rooms, 9 operating theatres, and Hong Kong's first animal intensive-care unit (ICU); it is also accredited as a Gold Standard hospital by International Cat Care and is described as one of the largest veterinary teaching hospitals in Southeast Asia (facility details in the companion piece in Module 15, Festival Walk Coexistence, the Vertical Campus, and Animal Facilities).

The CityU Veterinary Medical Centre also partners with Caritas's "Gato Home Project," providing free health checks and treatment for stray cats enrolled in that programme^※. This is perhaps the most concrete example, at the institutional level, of CityU establishing a direct link with unowned cats.

# What is the situation for stray cats around Kowloon Tong?

Hong Kong's stray-cat situation is a territory-wide issue, not one specific to CityU. The SPCA launched its Cat Colony Care Programme (CCCP)^※ in August 2000^※, built around Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), making it one of the earliest cities in Asia to implement large-scale TNR. To date, the programme has neutered over 86,000 cats^※ (cumulative since 2000), and Hong Kong currently has over 1,298 registered^※ volunteer carers across more than 2,000 active^※ cat-colony sites spread across the 18 districts.

Kowloon Tong is a mixed area of upscale residential housing and university campuses with relatively low ground coverage; historically, scattered cat colonies have been active in the green belts near the campus. However, in the public literature and media reports currently accessible, there is no primary source specifically documenting a fixed stray-cat colony within CityU's Kowloon Tong campus, or a student-led, systematic cat-care initiative. This database records this "no record found" status as-is, without supplementing it with circulating folklore.

⚠ For comparison: Lingnan University (Tuen Mun), also one of Hong Kong's eight publicly funded universities, is reported — according to a mainland Chinese education-media report^※ — to have a campus cat named "Little Tiger" who accompanied roughly 15 cohorts of students, and whose presence is said to have led to the formation of a "Cat Society Alliance" and a dedicated cat shelter, considered the most institutionalised example of cat culture among Hong Kong universities. CityU currently has no comparable record of an "official campus cat" or cat shelter.

# What is CityU's "PetPower" event?

If day-to-day stray-cat care mostly happens outside campus walls, the annual campus animal event organised by the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences is the most visible face of animal culture inside CityU.

On 29 February 2024^※, CityU held the "CityUHK PetPower" event on campus, themed "celebrating the human–animal bond." The event was organised by the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC), in partnership with the SPCA, the Animals Asia Foundation, the Student Development Services, and the Veterinary Medicine Society (VMS), among others, setting up interactive booths and workshops on campus.

On the day, JCC staff and students brought their own dogs, along with Animals Asia's "Professor Paws" therapy dogs, giving students from other disciplines a chance to interact with animals and de-stress during breaks. JCC Dean Professor Vanessa Barrs^※ was quoted at the event citing research indicating that "petting cats and dogs can help reduce anxiety and lower heart rate and blood pressure." This statement was quoted in the official press release as a formal position, representing CityU's veterinary school's public endorsement of "animal-assisted stress relief."

According to event coverage, participating students included first-year BVM students Cherish Sum and Bertina Sum^※, who said the event "let people learn about pet-owner responsibility while interacting with dogs, and also raised awareness of animal welfare in the wider community." This is currently the most concrete documented record of a cross-college, campus-wide public event on an animal theme held by CityU.

# What student animal-related societies does CityU have?

The Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences hosts several student societies led by BVM students, all listed on the public JCC website.

Among these, the Veterinary Medicine Society (VMS) runs an "Animal Welfare Booth" aimed at the entire CityU student body, promoting pet adoption and opposing the pet trade. This is currently one of the documented, formal channels through which BVM students convey animal-welfare awareness to students outside the veterinary discipline.

# CityU Farm in Lam Tsuen, Tai Po — an "animal enclave" beyond the campus

CityU's animal-related ecosystem does not stop at the main Kowloon Tong campus. On 16 November 2022^※, CityU formally opened "CityU Farm" in Lam Tsuen, Tai Po, as a large-animal teaching site for BVM students (background on the farm's groundbreaking and planning is covered in the companion piece in Module 15, Festival Walk Coexistence, the Vertical Campus, and Animal Facilities). The farm currently keeps 24 Jersey cows imported from Australia^※, with an expected daily milk yield of around 500 litres^※, and since 2023^※ has supplied "CityU Milk" to the campus, which briefly became a talking point among students.

This is an unusually rare arrangement for a Hong Kong university campus — most Hong Kong universities have to compete with property development even for greenery, while CityU operates a fully functioning dairy farm in Lam Tsuen in the New Territories, with students rotating through internships in milking, vaccination and hoof-trimming. Records from the Ruminant Club show its activities also extend to mobile veterinary care for goats, sheep and alpacas, meaning the scope of "CityU campus animals" reaches well beyond the walls of Kowloon Tong.

# What urban legends exist about the "veterinary campus"?

⚠ This section consists of circulating hearsay, lacking primary sources, and is labelled separately per site convention.

The "CityU cats get treated" story: because CityU has a veterinary school, it is said that stray cats on campus "get treated by students when they fall ill." Based on currently available records, the CityU Veterinary Medical Centre's charitable partnership covers cats enrolled in Caritas's Gato Home Project specifically, not stray cats around Kowloon Tong in general; BVM students' clinical placements are also centred on in-hospital consultations rather than volunteer cat patrols on campus. No direct evidence currently supports this claim; it appears to be a folk extension of CityU's "veterinary halo." ⚠ weak source / hearsay

The "CityU milk is special" story: the "CityU Milk" launched by CityU Farm in 2023 sparked discussion on student social media, with some students half-jokingly saying "milk personally supervised by vet students is probably the most trustworthy local fresh milk in Hong Kong." This is not presented as a factual claim and is recorded here only as campus trivia. ⚠ hearsay

Taken together, these stories point to a contrast: the university with the most advanced animal-clinical hardware in Hong Kong has, in its everyday campus life, less traceable "human-cat coexistence" than Lingnan University (see the "for comparison" note above). Institutionalised veterinary education and informal campus cat culture run on two separate tracks.

# In summary: where does CityU's animal atmosphere come from?

CityU's animal culture does not come from any famously named "campus cat," but from a set of institution-building efforts accumulated since 2008 — a veterinary school, a teaching hospital, a New Territories farm, plus the annual PetPower event that brings dogs onto campus — together creating a distinctive sense of "animal presence." This atmosphere is not obviously visible to the whole student body, but for students choosing to study BVM or with an interest in animal welfare, CityU offers a niche no other Hong Kong university replicates.

From an unofficial-history perspective, CityU's most significant "animal legend" may not be any particular cat, but this fact: a university that started out with an urban, applied-technology orientation, following an idea "to build a veterinary school" that surfaced in 2008^※, grew, in under twenty years, an Asia-leading veterinary education system wedged between the tower blocks of Kowloon Tong — and even took up keeping cows in Tai Po in the New Territories.