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

City University of Hong Kong (CityU / CityUHK) Comprehensive Information Database · Campus Lore Module

Reading note (Lore section): This article distinguishes between "documented" and "circulating in the community" content; passages of the latter kind are clearly labelled and are not presented as factual assertions. Direct documentary records of campus cats at CityU are relatively scarce, so this article uses the institutional history of the veterinary school as its main thread, weaving in traceable fragments of campus animal culture where they exist.

This article focuses on CityU's animal-welfare culture and the institutional history of its veterinary school; the 2016 Sports Centre rooftop collapse and the 2025 canteen altercation and other campus-safety incidents are covered in the companion piece Record of Major Campus Incidents; the institutional history of the veterinary school's diagnostic laboratory is covered in Module 12, CityU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

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) (accredited 25 September 2023^※), a distinction that gives it a singular position across the animal-welfare landscape of Hong Kong's universities.

In the lifts of a teaching building in Kowloon Tong, one can occasionally run into veterinary students leading dogs used in clinical training — probably the only campus in Hong Kong where this scene occurs. CityU's connection to "animals" did not originate from any particular celebrated campus cat, but from a body of institution-building that has accumulated since an idea first floated in 2008: a veterinary school, a teaching hospital, a New Territories farm — step by step turning this urban, campus-embedded university into the most highly accredited centre of veterinary education in Asia. This article follows that institutional thread, interweaving the verifiable and unverifiable fragments of campus animal culture along the way.

# Why is CityU intrinsically linked to "animals"?

CityU's Kowloon Tong campus does not sit amid the rolling greenery of, say, Cambridge or UC Davis; it is a textbook urban, campus-embedded university — Tat Chee Avenue runs past its gate, Festival Walk shopping mall sits just beside it, and an MTR exit is within walking distance (see the companion piece in Module 15, "Festival Walk Coexistence, Vertical Campus, and Animal Facilities," for details). On a campus this dense and vertically built, that animals became a "discussable subject" at all owes much to the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC), established in 2014^※. It is Hong Kong's first — and to date only — higher-education institution offering a veterinary degree programme. From that point on, CityU's association with "animals" was no longer just the occasional stray cat spotted at the edge of campus, but had an institutional thread running through it.

# 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 back to 2008^※. Shortly after taking office, then-President Way Kuo proposed the vision of establishing a veterinary school in Hong Kong, against a backdrop of successive outbreaks of SARS, avian influenza and swine flu, and a period in which the "One Health" concept — that human, animal and environmental health are interlinked — was gaining unprecedented traction in global public-health circles. CityU subsequently entered into a formal partnership with Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine in 2009^※, jointly planning the curriculum structure and submitting its first proposal for a new school to the University Grants Committee.

The college was formally established in 2014^※, initially under the name "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" in recognition of that gift. The six-year Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVM) programme began admitting students in 2017^※, with its first cohort of roughly 11 graduates^※ gaining licensure eligibility in 2023; on 25 September 2023^※, the programme received dual accreditation from both the RCVS and the AVBC, the first such case in Asia.

# Just how long has CityU's "clinic" actually been around?

Many assume CityU's veterinary teaching facilities are a recent development, but the lineage of the CityU Veterinary Medical Centre actually traces back to 1984^※. At that time, the Peace Avenue Veterinary Clinic (PAVC) opened in Mong Kok, recorded as Hong Kong's first veterinary clinic founded 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^※ it became the first in Hong Kong to introduce a pet MRI machine, a distinction within the industry at the time.

In 2008^※, the clinic relocated and expanded into a new 18,000-square-foot^※ site on Free Land Road, Ho Man Tin. 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^※, the clinic relocated again to 339 Lai Chi Kok Road, Sham Shui Po (Trinity Towers), reopening under the name "CityU Veterinary Medical Centre (CityU VMC)" with expanded floor space of roughly 33,000 square feet across three storeys, comprising 22 consultation rooms, 9 operating theatres, and Hong Kong's first animal intensive-care unit (ICU); it also received Gold Standard accreditation from International Cat Care, making it one of Southeast Asia's largest veterinary teaching hospitals (see the companion piece in Module 15, "Festival Walk Coexistence, Vertical Campus, and Animal Facilities," for facility details).

The CityU Veterinary Medical Centre has also partnered with Caritas's "Gato Home Project," providing free physical examinations and treatment to stray cats enrolled in that programme^※. This is perhaps the most concrete case of CityU establishing a direct, institutional connection with "ownerless cats."

# What is the situation for Kowloon Tong's stray cats?

Hong Kong's stray-cat issue is a territory-wide matter, not 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 TNR at scale. To date, the programme has sterilised over 86,000 cats^※ (cumulative since 2000), and there are currently over 1,298^※ registered volunteer carers territory-wide, covering more than 2,000^※ active cat-colony sites across all 18 districts.

Kowloon Tong is a mixed residential-and-university area of relatively high status, with comparatively low ground coverage, and there have historically been scattered cat colonies active in green belts near the campus. However, in the currently accessible public literature and media coverage, there is no primary source specifically documenting a fixed stray-cat colony within CityU's Kowloon Tong campus, or a systematic student-led cat-care initiative. This archive records this "unverifiable" state as it stands, and does not supplement it with unofficial legend.

⚠ Comparative reference: Lingnan University (Tuen Mun), another of Hong Kong's eight publicly funded universities, is reported by Chinese education media^※ to have had a "campus cat" named Siu Fu, who accompanied roughly 15 successive cohorts of students, giving rise to the "Cat Society Alliance" and a dedicated cat shelter — widely regarded as the most institutionalised case 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 the day-to-day care of stray cats occurs mostly beyond the campus walls, then the annual campus animal event organised by the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences on its own initiative is the most visible face of animal culture inside CityU.

On 29 February 2024^※, CityU held "CityUHK PetPower" 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, Animals Asia Foundation, Student Development Services, and the Veterinary Medicine Society (VMS), 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 dog, giving students from other disciplines a chance to interact with animals and de-stress during their break. JCC Dean Professor Vanessa Barrs^※ was quoted at the event citing research that "petting cats and dogs can help reduce anxiety and lower heart rate and blood pressure." This line, quoted as an official position in the press release, represents CityU's veterinary school publicly endorsing "animal-assisted stress relief."

According to coverage of the event, 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 society." This is currently the most concrete accessible record of a large-scale, cross-college, animal-themed public event held on CityU's campus.

# What student animal 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 recorded, formal channels through which BVM students convey animal-welfare awareness to non-veterinary students.

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

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

This is an exceptionally rare arrangement for a Hong Kong university campus — most Hong Kong universities have to fight developers for space just to keep any greenery at all, while CityU operates a working dairy farm in the New Territories at Lam Tsuen, with students taking turns to intern there — milking, vaccinating, and trimming hooves. Records from the Ruminant Club show its activities also extend to mobile clinics for goats, sheep and alpacas, pushing the scope of "CityU campus animals" well beyond the walls of Kowloon Tong.

# What urban legends surround the "veterinary campus"?

⚠ The content of this section circulates informally and lacks primary sourcing; per this site's convention it is labelled separately.

The "CityU cats get treated" legend: Because CityU has a veterinary school, it is said informally that stray cats on campus "get treated by students when they fall ill." Based on the records available, the CityU Veterinary Medical Centre's charitable partnership covers cats enrolled in Caritas's Gato Home Project specifically, not unspecified Kowloon Tong street cats; and BVM students' clinical training is centred on in-clinic consultations, not volunteer patrols of the campus for cats. This claim currently has no direct supporting evidence and appears to be an imaginative extension, in popular perception, of CityU's "veterinary aura." ⚠ Weak source / community lore

The "CityU milk is special" legend: The launch of "CityU Milk" from CityU Farm in 2023 sparked discussion on student social media, with some students half-jokingly calling it "probably Hong Kong's most trustworthy local fresh milk, personally overseen by veterinary students." This is not presented as a factual assertion and is recorded here purely as campus trivia. ⚠ Community lore

Taken together, this set of legends points to a contrast: a university with the most highly specified animal-clinical hardware in Hong Kong has, in its everyday campus life, a "human-cat coexistence" that is in fact less traceable than Lingnan University's (see "Comparative reference" above). Institutionalised veterinary education and informal campus cat culture run on two separate tracks.

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

CityU's animal culture does not come from any particular famous "campus cat," but from a body of institution-building accumulated since 2008 — the veterinary school, the teaching hospital, the New Territories farm, plus the annual PetPower event that brings dogs onto campus — together producing a distinctive "sense of animal presence." This atmosphere is not conspicuous to the student body at large, but for students pursuing the BVM programme or with an interest in animal welfare, CityU offers a niche no other Hong Kong university can replicate.

Viewed through a lore lens: CityU's most significant "animal legend" may not be any particular cat, but this fact — a university that began as a pragmatic, urban, polytechnic-oriented institution took less than two decades, starting from a "let's build a veterinary school" idea that surfaced in 2008^※, to grow — amid the packed tower blocks of Kowloon Tong — the most highly accredited veterinary education system in Asia, and to end up raising cattle out in Tai Po's New Territories.