The move aims to “prevent and control rabies, maintain public order and sanitation, and create a sound environment for the people,” the Jiangmen Daily reported, citing a government announcement ….

Li [Li Wantong, technology director at an animal disease control center] estimated that the new rule will likely affect more than 30,000 dogs in the city of 4 million people.

This is not the first anti-dog campaign to be launched in Jiangmen. Back in August 2005, the city also encouraged people living in downtown areas to hand in their dogs, but received no response ….

The new policy has “negatively affected our business,” a pet shop clerk in Pengjiang district told the Global Times on condition of anonymity. “We have stopped selling dogs for quite a while now.”

Authorities later modified the plan, however, following outraged reactions from local dog owners. From the Global Times’ follow-up:

Instead of destroying their pets, the government would now advise owners to “resettle” their dogs outside the restricted areas, the new government statement said. The move represented a step back from a regulation drafted by five city government bodies ruling all dogs be seized or killed ….

More than 100 dog owners held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss how to protect their dogs from being seized or killed by the city government.

It wasn’t a successful meeting, a participant told the Global Times on Wednesday, failing to achieve any consensus.

“Too many people gathered in the hotel, divided by reporters coming for interview,” he said, “and we also felt some pressure from outside.”

Most people at the meeting had been confused about the vague wording of the regulation and wondered whether it was really directed against all pet dogs in Jiangmen, explained the owner, who requested anonymity.

While China’s rabies problem is severe, some experts say that the original policy would do little to address it if enacted. From The Guardian:

“This [ban] is not scientific, not humane, and it will not last long. In short term, maybe it could be effective, but after that, people still want to keep dogs,” said Dr Tang Qing of the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention at China’s Centre for Disease Control. “People won’t accept it and implementing it will be difficult – you can’t break down doors to seize and kill dogs.”

He added that a vaccination programme for dogs would be cheaper and more effective ….

The health ministry says 3,300 people died of the disease in 2007, although the toll fell to 2,466 in 2008 and experts believe the worst may be over.

A 2009 ministry report said only a fifth of China’s 75m dogs were vaccinated against the disease. It added that 40 million people a year were bitten by animals.

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Post tags: disease, dog cull, dogs, Guangdong, pets, rabies
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Twenty years ago, there were hardly any dogs in Beijing, and the few that were here stood a chance of landing on a dinner plate. It remains possible even today to find dog-meat dishes here. But it is far easier to find dog-treat stores, dog Web sites, dog social networks, dog swimming pools — even, for a time recently, a bring-your-dog cinema and a bring-your-dog bar on Beijing’s downtown nightclub row.

All that and, Beijing officials say, 900,000 dogs as well, their numbers growing 10 percent a year. And those are the registered ones. Countless thousands of others are unlicensed.

How this came to be is, in some ways, the story of modern China as well.

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Post tags: dogs, lifestyle, pets, wealth
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One is named Obama, another goes by Son of Bush. They charge tens of thousands of dollars for sex. Convoys of luxury cars, driven by fans, greet the most expensive studs at airports. Meet the canine gigolos — the purebred Tibetan Mastiffs that have become the latest symbol of China’s growing wealth.

Pet ownership is booming in a nation where dogs and cats are featured as part of meals and animal abuse remains widespread. But none carries the cachet of the Tibetan Mastiff, one of the largest dog breeds, which can weigh 180 pounds.

Last month, a Nanjing breeder paid $234,000 for his purebred pooch, reported the Yangtze Evening Times. In September, a young woman in Xian paid $600,000 for her pet, according to the Xian Evening News. Both led airport welcomes with long convoys of pricey automobiles.

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Post tags: animal rights, dogs, pets
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Animal-welfare advocates complained about a campaign in which a local government has killed 37,000 dogs to fight a rabies outbreak, highlighting a divide in attitudes toward animals as China grows wealthier.

The city of Hanzhong, in China’s central Shaanxi province, has ordered the killing of all dogs found outside homes in areas hit hardest by the outbreak. Authorities have ordered “dog-beating teams” to canvass the area and beat dogs to death on the spot — including those that have been registered by their owners, said Shi Ruihua, head of the livestock department in Hanzhong’s agriculture bureau.

Rabies outbreaks are common in rural China. This year, Hanzhong saw a spike in the number of cases. Thirteen people have died there since the outbreak started in early March.

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Chinese legal experts are drawing up proposals for the country’s first animal welfare law, which could criminalise the brutal culling of dogs and other forms of pet maltreatment.

The recommendations, which will be submitted to the government by the end of the year, come after a public backlash against the authorities for slaughtering dogs to prevent the spread of rabies.

[...]The draft proposals are said to borrow ideas from the UK on sterilisation programmes and computer chip implants, but the main focus is on preventing maltreatment of animals.

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“We still eat dog, but not this kind of dog,” Liu Ming, a pet shop salesman said, pointing to a toffee-colored puppy with floppy ears on sale for about 500 yuan, or $70. “We eat much bigger dogs.”

In the days of Mao, pets were considered a bourgeois indulgence. Now the cute dogs sold in pet shops are spared, while homely mutts tend to be sold at live animal markets as the main ingredient in dog meat stew.

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Pet shop owners say stocks are running low – and prices high – as children clamour for a furry friend.

“Rats and mice have a bad image, but hamsters are gentle. You can hold them in your hand and play with them,” Xinhua News Agency reported.

Pet stores are also reporting an increased interest in other, similar-looking creatures, such as chinchillas and squirrels. But it is the hamster that appears to have caught the imagination.

The hamster has won favor with Todou users as well, including “fei qi qi,” with her pet, Xiao Huang, in hand:

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Post tags: children, pets, tudou, videos, Year of the Rat
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East Today Daily reported today that last Saturday scores of vehicles and members of the Urban Management Team were in battle array and marching in line at the Green City Plaza at Zhengzhou. This was the largest law enforcement action in Zhengzhou City. The aim was to remove illegal dogs. Since October 1st, the “Zhengzhou City Dog Raising Management Ordinance” has been formally implemented. After that, Zhengzhou City Dog Raising Management Office announced that dog licenses would be issued until the end of October. Then the Urban Management Team would investigate and punish the illegal dogs. So far, over 10,000 dogs in Zhengzhou have been formally licensed.

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Read the rest of Armored Illegal Dog Crackdown Team in Zhengzhou (0 words)

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Post tags: chengguan, dog control, pets, photos, rabies, Zhengzhou
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The Chinese authorities in an area of Beijing have begun implanting digital chips into dogs in a bid to cut down on the number of unregistered dogs.

Chips the size of a rice grain are being injected into the necks of dogs in a pilot project in the Xicheng district, Xinhua news agency reports.

The chip contains details of the dog’s breed, birth, inoculations and owner….[Full Text]

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