HONG KONG, Nov 29, 2007 (AFP) - For nearly two decades a serial killer has terrorised one of Hong Kong's most affluent residential areas, motive and identity remaining a mystery.

The infamous "Bowen Road Poisoner" has claimed dozens of lives, his - or her - most recent victim dying just last month after eating meat laced with a lethal dose of insecticide.

Lethal, that is, to the pet dogs who are the target of this elusive killer.

And the killer's modus operandi - laying down poisoned meat at the side of the road - has allowed whoever it is to go undetected since 1989.

The latest victim, a chocolate-brown mongrel adopted from Hong Kong's dog rescuers, died last month within 30 minutes of eating poisoned meat as her owners took her for an early-morning walk on Bowen Road.

Police figures show there have been 72 reported poisonings in the area since 1989, 44 of them fatal, although vets here believe many more such incidents might have gone unreported.

Earlier this year, one Hong Kong dog lover decided enough was enough.

Local resident and dog owner Barry Lea pledged 50,000 Hong Kong dollars (6,448 US) of his own money to allow Hong Kong's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to double its long-standing reward for information leading to the poisoner's arrest.

Lea, a former police officer, said he was inspired to act after the death of two Labrador-poodle crosses being trained to work as care dogs.

"I'm a dog lover and I have a Labrador retriever who's a trained search and rescue dog. Why anyone would want to see her dying an agonising death is beyond me," he says.

"(The case) is in the hands of regional crime units, who usually deal with serious crime. But so far they've not been able to track the culprit down, and it will be money well spent if they do."

The pledge has injected new life into the SPCA's campaign to raise awareness of the poisonings among dog owners.

The organisation says it has switched the focus of its campaign to public education as the poisoner continues to evade police.

Balancing anti-dog sentiment in a pet-mad city

SPCA Chief Superintendent Tony Ho, a retired police officer, leads a team of people who regularly patrol the four kilometres (2.5 miles) of Bowen Road, and nearby Black's Link, handing out leaflets and talking to walkers.

"We are trying to educate the dog owners to control their dogs and by telling them what they should do if they suspect the dog may have consumed poison," he says.

"But we also talk to the other road users. We try to explain to them that if they're not happy about the animals they shouldn't put the blame on the animals, it's the owners' fault."

Ho says the patrols have uncovered high levels of anti-dog sentiment in this traditionally pet-loving city.

He believes there may be some ill-feeling, particularly among older people, about dogs fouling the street near sacred spots such as Lover's Rock, where unmarried women go to pray for a husband, in this deeply superstitious city.

"You do get copycat crimes and it's very difficult to say whether it's one person doing this, or more. There are people who don't like dogs.

"All we can do is do our very best and continue to send our men up more than once a day, and the police are doing almost the same. Trouble is we can't do it for 24 hours, it's a very long stretch of road," he admits.

Lea believes the poisoner has been "either very clever or very lucky, or a combination of both" to be able to evade detection for so long, while continuing to lay down bait on the popular street.

"The area spreads over several kilometres and while it's a well trodden path there are lots of twists and turns and there are times when it's pretty quiet," he says.

There have been frequent complaints that Hong Kong police do not take the killings seriously enough, although the force has devoted considerable resources to the case, at one point drafting in a Swedish pet specialist to profile the killer.

Lea, a long-term Hong Kong resident, fears the poisonings are now beginning to harm the city's image.

"It's been going on for a very long time now, far too long, and a lot of animals have been killed or injured," he says.

"But it goes further than the killing of innocent creatures. The Australian Chamber of Commerce recently published an article on living in Hong Kong that included a warning about the dog poisoner.

"When you get that kind of thing it starts to reflect quite badly on the place as a whole."