Animal rights campaigner Fiona Woodhouse on Tuesday said she's hopeful that a proposal to massively increase fines for illegally feeding wild animals will be effective in deterring repeat offenders.

The government has proposed amending the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance to raise the maximum penalty for illegal feeding from HK$10,000 to HK$100,000, along with up to a year in prison.

Dr. Woodhouse, deputy director in welfare services at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) told RTHK’s Hong Kong Today programme that the problem is widespread.

“A lot of the items being fed are actually incorrect in terms of diet for the animals – they’re [the] wrong nutritional balance [and can] cause things like impaction”, she said, adding that illegal feeding can also change the behaviour of wild animals that can lead to conflicts with humans.

Woodhouse said she’s hopeful that increased penalties would deter repeat offenders, who she said habitually feed animals ‘on an industrial scale’, even though it’s highly unlikely that the maximum penalties will be imposed when cases go to court.