BEIJING, China: Dogs and their owners have earned a temporary reprieve from an official anti-rabies dog cull instituted by Chinese authorities, which saw canines banned from public places and owners prosecuted for owning unlicensed animals.
In an attempt to boost the rabies vaccination rate amongst canines and reduce the number of human deaths due to the disease, Chinese authorities moved swiftly last October to ban and confiscate dog breeds which they classified as 'large' or dangerous, banned owners from walking dogs in public places and set a strict 'one dog' policy for all families.
However following pressure from animal groups the world over, Chinese authorities suspended the anti-rabies campaign. According to the South China Morning Post, President Hu Jintao “was unhappy about the complaints and international coverage” generated by the crackdown, and ordered a halt.
Letter-writing campaign
According to pet-industry publication Pet Product News International, global pressure included letter-writing campaigns to Beijing's police department, mayor's office and the Organizing Committee for next year's Beijing Olympic Games.
The letter campaign, including one letter signed by 60,000 animal lovers from across China, is credited with creating the pressure on police to stop the crackdown, according to the magazine.
PPNI said the dog crackdown started in response to at least 318 Chinese dying from the disease in September 2006. Measures included included “confiscating dogs that were either unlicensed or over 35 centimeters tall – roughly 14 inches”.
This story just makes me sick to my stomach - how dare they just go and grab people's pets like that? There is absolutely no justification for that.
You do not know the serious of what goes on their ans continues. Ask Peta.com about China & S. Korea are skinning, boiling, torturing pets and strays to death. Cats and dogs are harvested for their fur, to this day in 2007. Take a look at what PETA.COM shows you. Please Lord give me the strength to pass on the word. Do not purchase fur anywhere from any store, it may be your own pet. Very upset.
Well, Mel, China IS a communist state. I suppose the government feels that it can get away with just about anything.
But I do agree with you; I wouldn't want it to happen to me or my pets. And I certainly wouldn't want to live in a place where a government resorts to crackdowns such as this.
what a terrible way of enforcing themselves on the general public. there are other better ways of preventing the spread if rabies or other dog disease.
this is an extreme way of enforcing the law. if they had the foresight early on to require rabies vaccination, then this would have never happened and now their saving face because of their inefficiency. what a disgraceful government.
I'm always saddened by pet suffering and pets' lives cut short. I believe that most humans do not realize how terrible the crisis is, in the world and is the USA too. In Pennsylvania the holding period for a stray dog is only 2 days/ 48 hours, and the law doesn't even state that the shelter/pound has to be open those days! No requirement that the dog must be scanned for a microchip and no requirement that owners of pets, with a phone number id tag, must be called before euthanasia.
The is no required holding period at all for stray cats (your beloved kitty slips out and a neighbor assumes its abandoned and takes it to a shelter, they can kill it on the spot) and no holding period at all for owner surrendered dogs and cats, they can be killed on arrival if the shelter/pound doesn't have the room, the time, the staff feels grumpy that day, whatever.
The problem would be solvable if those who cared about pet suffering would quit breeding (both purposeful and negligent) and start adopting and spaying/neutering.
Why worry? Pet overpopulation isn't the end of the world, unless you're a pet.