CHINA DOGS Saturday, Nov 25 2006
Uncategorized 3:18 am
Beijing is a city of at least 12 million people and at least a million dogs, about half of which are unregistered and deemed fugitives in the eyes of the local police.
The complication, of course, is that many of these fugitives are also beloved pets, so confrontation is almost inevitable and has been rising in recent weeks as the police have begun a swift and harsh crackdown against illegal dogs.
The conflict is over city regulations that limit households in eight designated districts to a single dog and also forbid people from owning large dogs like golden retrievers and huskies.
The regulations, considered misguided by many dog owners, were introduced in 2003 but have been only loosely enforced as the city’s pet industry has boomed. Dogs in Beijing can now eat at a dog restaurant, be groomed at a dog boutique and swim in an outdoor dog lap pool at the Coolbaby Dog Theme Park.
Recently, though, Beijing newspapers carried a notice about the new campaign, under way since October, concerning “pet dog management work.” It said households with too many dogs, or with big dogs, would have 10 days to relocate them. In essence, owners had 10 days to get rid of the dogs or the police would do it for them. The note also promised to pay rewards to people who helped the police catch neighbors violating the dog rules.
Anxiety and outrage have quickly spread among dog owners. Several reported that the police were already apprehending large dogs in apartment compounds and had even entered individual apartments to seize some dogs. Web sites posted photographs of dogs crammed into holding pens at dingy city pounds. Another Internet posting warned that a slaughter of stray dogs and cats would begin next week.
Rabies is the primary reason offered for the new crackdown. Nationally, China reported that 1,735 people died from the disease between January and August, a 29 percent increase from the period a year earlier. The Ministry of Health said growing numbers of people were taking dogs as pets without properly vaccinating them.
But what has horrified pet advocates worldwide is the brutal solution that some places in China have adopted to solve the rabies problem. This summer, officials in one section of Yunnan Province ordered an extermination campaign that led to the slaughter of more than 54,000 dogs. Another smaller extermination drive was held in Shandong Province.
Grace Ge Gabriel, the Asia director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said her group agreed that dog owners should vaccinate their pets and register them. But she said Beijing’s current ban against big dogs was wrongheaded because it was based on the premise that they are more vicious.
She also said that using rabies to justify the crackdown was misleading because Beijing did not have a rabies problem, a point confirmed by a state media report.
Police offical, Mr. Shi said that officers in his precinct had not begun cracking down on illegal dogs but that each police district was handling the issue differently. “We’re waiting to be notified,” he said.
He said officials wanted to ensure that no one was bitten and injured during the 2008 Olympics. “Of course, it is related to the Games,” Mr. Shi said. “Everything needs to be cleaned up before the Olympics.”
source: The NY TIMES
