Editorial feature: Chinese Year of the Dog begins with good omens, From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

 

 

Chinese " Year of the Dog " begins with good omens

 

The Year of the Dog, observed throughout the regions of Asia

sharing cultural affinity to China, has rarely been auspicious for

dogs.

1910, for example, brought famine and a rise in dog-eating

to Korea, following a Japanese invasion. In 1922 the Chinese

Communist Party declared that dogs are social parasites. The

notoriously dog-hating Mao Tse Tung became head of the Chinese

Communist Party in 1934, began his rise to national rule in 1946,

and in 1958 purged both dogs and songbirds, after the Great Leap

Forward brought famine on a globally unprecedented scale.

The 1994 Year of the Dog predictably began in Beijing with a

dog massacre. The Beijing Youth News estimated that as many as

100,000 dogs inhabited the city when the killing started. The

Beijing Evening News pretended that dogs found by the police were

taken to " an animal shelter run by the Public Security Ministry, " but

China bureau correspondent Jan Wong of the Toronto Globe & Mail

learned otherwise.

Chief dog-killer Li Wearui boasted to Wong that his team beat

to death 351 dogs in 10 days. His assistant Fei Xiaoyang preferred

strangling dogs with steel wire. The Beijing Legal Daily published a

photo of police dragging a dog to death behind a jeep.

The dogcatchers made a point of killing dogs in front of

their people, then collecting fines. " Our policy is to annihilate

dogs, " Li said.

For the first time since Mao seized power in 1949, however,

Beijing dog-keepers in 1994 resisted the killers, hiding dogs,

smuggling them outside the city for temporary safekeeping, and

refusing to inform on each other.

Trying to build support for dog-killing, the Beijing

government claimed in April 1994 that dogs had bitten 30,000 people

during the preceding year. By October the clamed 1993 total was up

to 52,000. As the ratio of reported bites to dogs in most cities

worldwide runs at about one bite per 150 dogs, Beijing had either an

exceptionally aggressive dog population or grossly inflated data.

Beijing tried to contain the rising public enthusiasm for

dogs by promoting a dog museum at the foot of the Great Wall in

Badaling. Officials believed that the public would tire of dogs, if

exposed to them for very long. The park opened with 150 purebreds,

imported from all over the world. Visitors soon wanted dogs of their

own.

In Shanghai, wrote New York Times correspondent Philip

Shenon, a government survey found that dogs ranked fourth among most

the coveted possessions of Chinese citizens, ahead of cars, behind

television sets, refrigerators, and washing machines.

Alarmed, the Shanghai administration tried to eradicate pet

dogs by confiscating as many as possible for use in biomedical

research.

Back in Beijing, officials acknowledged by mid-September

1994 that despite six months of deliberately vicious dog-purging, the

dog population had increased to 190,000, believed to be 3.5 times as

many as inhabited the city in 1986. Somewhat surprisingly admitting

defeat, Beijing changed tactics, and in October 1994 proposed dog

licensing--at a fee three times higher than the average annual wage.

The fee was cut by a third before taking effect. The annual renewal

fee was cut in half. The fees have since then been lowered again.

The Beijing Evening News soldiered on against dog-keeping.

Nationally, the editors claimed rather implausibly, 100 million

dogs ate enough grain to feed 40 million people, of about 80 million

Chinese people said to be suffering from malnutrition. As China very

rarely acknowledges having any malnutrition, this claim drew

particular notice.

Dogs bit a million Chinese people per year, the Beijing

Evening News continued.

" Communist Party members should never do anything that could

harm the masses or society--for example, keeping dogs, " wrote one

Dong Wenzhe.

That made dog-keeping a symbol of resistance to the

repressive status quo.

Jittery officials again purged dogs at the end of the 1994

Year of the Dog.

Dog massacres have continued here and there ever since, most

often amid rabies outbreaks in the vicinity of the huge factory farms

in the southern and coastal regions where dogs are raised for meat

and fur.

Yet in hindsight, 1994 was the year when dogs won an

increasingly prominent place under the table in China, instead of

just on top of it, in pots.

More dogs than ever are eaten in China. Estimated annual

consumption is believed to have nearly doubled since 1994, to about

10 million, according to Animals Asia Foundation founder Jill

Robinson. The industry became more lucrative after Chinese dog and

cat meat merchants several years ago discovered and almost completely

took over the U.S. and European markets for cheap fur trim.

But there are now believed to be more than one million pet

dogs in Beijing alone, about 410,000 of them licensed. Throughout

China, there are an estimated 150 million dog-keeping homes, and up

to 300 million total pet dogs, according to the highest official

estimates. That would be almost five times as many dogs as there are

in the U.S., which has the third largest dog population of any

nation.

The U.S. and Costa Rica have the most dogs relative to

humans, among nations with good current data, with ratios of

slightly more than one dog per five people. However, China has not

less than one dog per nine people, and would have one dog per 4.3

people if the 300 million estimate is accurate. Even at the lowest

estimate, China has 10% more dogs than India, and almost as many

dogs per capita as Britain, France, and Australia.

This suggests that dog-keepers are among the fastest-growing

interest groups and potential political forces in China--and that

attitudes toward either eating dogs or selling their pelts may

rapidly change.

 

Now denying dog massacres

 

Indeed, attitudes toward dogs in general have already

changed with impressive speed. In the northern port city of Tianjin,

for example, 510 people were bitten during the Year of the Dog

celebrations, from January 29 to February 5, while teasing dogs to

make them bark, as a purported harbinger of good fortune. Rather

than blame the dogs, the Tianjin Municipal Disease Control Center

took the opportunity to educate the public about dog behavior, the

Xinhua News Agency reported, praising dogs as " a loyal and obedient

animal. "

Instead of boasting about an alleged dog massacre going into

this Year of the Dog, as his predecessors did 12 years ago, Beijing

State Council Information Office director Guo Weimin on January 12,

2006 denied media reports that 1,000 dogs had been killed in

Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong province.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, Guo Weimin " told a

press conference that some cities have recently stepped up the

management and supervision of illegally kept or vagrant dogs, "

including " a one-month drive to enhance the management of raising,

selling and abandoning dogs, in a bid to reduce the possibility for

the occurrence of rabies and the number of stray dogs.

" Nevertheless, " the Xinhua News Agency continued, " he denied that

there had been a mass killing of dogs in the streets. "

Instead, " According to Guo, dog-raising has caused some

social problems in Guangzhou recently. Local health departments

reported that at least two or three people had been bitten and

wounded by dogs each day, and this might give rise to rabies, a

disease caused by dog bite. "

To put that into context, Guangzhou is the hub of the part

of China where dogs (and cats) are most commonly eaten, and most

plentifully raised for human consumption. Rabies vaccination is

strictly required of pets throughout China, but " meat dogs " are not

vaccinated. Nearly 3,000 Chinese people die from dog-transmitted

rabies per year, almost entirely in proximity to dog meat farming.

Two weeks after Guo Weimin held his press conference, ANIMAL

PEOPLE received an e-mail from Jia Meng, chief member society

development officer for the Chinese Companion Animals Protection

Network, who wanted us to know that a cover feature published in the

Guangzhou edition of the newspaper Nan Fang Du Shi Bao had called for

" stopping eating cats and dogs. This is the first time the citizens'

voice of anti-consumption has been spread to such a broad extent, "

Jia Meng wrote.

Nan Fang Du Shi Bao claims a circulation of 1.56 million.

A comparably remarkable example of recent Chinese reporting

about dogs appeared in the Shanghai Daily on December 30, 2005.

" The approaching Year of the Dog is good news for people

selling pet puppies, but is raising concerns among those who take

care of strays, " the Shanghai Daily opened, in an expose of pet

overpopulation reading much like those published in U.S. newspapers.

" People who sell dogs in wet markets, pet stores and online

say sales have been booming as the end of the year approaches, " the

Shanghai Daily continued. " Some local pet markets say dog sales are

up by about 30% from normal, and their stores are packed with people

looking to pick up a puppy. "

Shanghai Pets Aid Center cofounder Zhou Min was extensively

quoted, inveighing against impulse buying and the Chinese

equivalents of puppy mills.

" Many puppies sold in some local markets are taken from

out-of-town underground sources, " Zhou Min said. " Bad conditions on

the long journey cause many of them to become deeply sick or to be in

poor condition. The dog dealers have their ways to make puppies look

energetic in front of potential customers. I am worried, " Zhou Min

said, " that some of their owners will choose to leave them on the

street in order not to pay expensive medical bills for their

treatment. They could also be abandoned after the new owners lose

interest or patience in looking after them. "

Reuters affirmed from Shanghai a month later that " Abandoned

animals are the dark side of the explosion in pet ownership across

the country in recent years. "

Reuters quoted both U.S. expatriate Carol Wolfson, who

recently founded a foster/adoption program in Shanghai called Second

Chance Animal Aid, and Shanghai Pet Association director Xia Jun,

24. Xia Jun represents a generation of Chinese youth who have grown

up in single-child families and have found companionship in animals.

" Some so-called animal protection organizations are not so

altruistic, " Reuters alleged, citing no examples. " Many have been

found to be selling the cats and dogs they gather to restaurants. "

Historically, that is what dogcatchers have done in China.

Yet even in Shanghai, reputedly the city where the most dogs are

eaten, strays are now at large, apparently because dog meat demand

is down.

BBC News Beijing correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in late

January 2006 visited a dog meat farm " in the countryside an hour from

Beijing. "

Wingfield-Hayes found the anticipated horrific conditions. He also

found a surprise.

" This business is no good any more, " the proprietor

lamented. " There's no money to be made in it. "

Continued Wingfield-Hayes, " I was soon to find out why. For

my next stop I wanted to visit a dog meat restaurant, but finding

one proved trickier than I had imagined.

" For two days my assistant scoured Beijing.

" 'Isn't there one behind the Korean embassy?' I asked. 'No,'

she said. 'That's closed.' 'What about the one over by the

World Trade Centre?' 'That's closed too.'

" Finally we did find one, way out in a grimy suburb on the

north side of the city. "

Dog-eating was never very common in Beijing, or in most of

the Mandarin-speaking parts of China. However, Cantonese and Korean

immigrants to Beijing opened as many as 120 dog meat restaurants

around the city during the late 1990s, mostly serving fellow

immigrants. Now their business is imploding under social pressure.

" I want to smash every dog restaurant in the city, " Beijing

Pet Nation Dog Academy groomer Li Xuefeng told Wingfield-Hayes. " But

really I don't think it's necessary. The dog restaurants are

disappearing fast. Young Chinese have very different attitudes

towards animals. They really love dogs. "

" It's just not right that we eat dogs. Dog-eating was never

part of our tradition, " pro-dog activist Ou Yang told Jehangir S.

Pocha of the San Francisco Chronicle foreign service. " As China

develops, we should develop our society the right way and refine our

civilization. "

Wrote Pocha, " In an effort to win Chinese hearts and minds,

Beijing dog lovers recently started a petition to ban dog meat from

inside the city's Science and Technology Museum, which hosted a

special exhibition to celebrate the dog/human relationship. Visitors

were greeted with giant blow-up photos of puppies in ingratiatingly

cute poses and a red banner that proclaimed, 'Dogs are human

companions.' "

The Year of the Dog news from other Asian nations is mixed,

most ominously in South Korea. In theory, dog and cat eating was

banned in South Korea 15 years ago, but the law has never been

enforced, chiefly because it was too inspecific to be enforced.

For more than five years now, South Korean activists have

fought stealth attempts by dog and cat meat proponents to legalize

dog and cat eating by introducing a new animal protection law which

nominally strengthens the existing law, but distinguishes between

dogs and cats kept as pets and those raised for meat. In addition,

some legislators and administrative branches of the South Korean

government are reportedly trying to structure the new law so that

humane law enforcement, such as it is, will be funded by inspection

fees collected from the dog and cat butchers.

Only about 6% of South Koreans eat dogs and cats, about the

same percentage of Americans who hunt, but as with hunters, the

participants are disproportionately older men, who dominate the

national political, regulatory, economic, and communication

infrastructure.

" The Philippines is one of the few Asian countries where

progressive laws exist to protect animals from cruelty and abuse,

including the implementation of a law in 1998 forbidding the eating

of dog meat, " recently wrote Animals Asia Foundation founder Jill

Robinson.

" However, the Philippine Animal Welfare Society has alerted

us that this law is now under threat. PAWS informs us that there is

a proposal to legalize the dog meat trade in Baguio province. Whilst

on the surface this appears to be an attempt to preserve local

'culture' and 'tradition,' PAWS is concerned that the real intent of

some officials is to open a wholesale dog meat industry. "

Specifically, after receiving a complaint from PAWS

volunteer and actress Sharmaine Arnaiz that dog meat was openly

advertised on a Baguio City restaurant menu, PAWS President Nita

Lichauco on December 27, 2005 asked Baguio City veterinarian,

Bridget Piok to enforce the law. Piok informed Lichauco that a

proposal to legalize selling dog meat was already far advanced by the

regional government.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo fueled

speculation that dog-eating might be legalized by asking a series of

questions about dog meat during a December 27 state dinner at her

official residence in Baguio City. The conversation was disclosed

four days later by Philippine Inquirer reporters Vincent Cabreza and

Tonette Orejas.

The Philippine law already allows members of the indigenous

Igorot tribe to eat dogs, an opening widely if illegally exploited

by dog meat dealers.

Public response to disclosure that the dog meat industry

might be fully legalized was overwhelmingly negative. On January 14

the Calabarzon police signaled that the law is still in effect and

being enforced by intercepting two jitneys carrying 70 dogs from the

Quiloquilo village, Padre Garcia, Batangas, to slaughterhouses in

Baguio City and the Ilocos region. Four traffickers were arrested.

Opposition to the dog meat trade increased on February 1,

after Animal Kingdom Foundation officer-in-charge Suzanne Llanera

disclosed the death of a four-year-old girl from rabies after

neighbors who were holding a drinking party gave her a bite of dog

meat.

" Ressia Mae Edoria of Barangay Molobolo, Cauayan, Negros

Occidental suffered from high fever and exhibited symptoms of rabies

shortly after eating the meat, " her father Renante Edoria told

Margaux C. Ortiz of the Philippine Inquirer. The girl died on

December 13.

Veterinarian Winston Samaniego told Ortiz that rabies might

have attacked the victim though a tooth cavity, moving rapidly

through exposed nerve endings to her brain.

Confirmation that a clandestine dog meat industry persists in

Japan, decades after overt dog-eating disappeared, came in

mid-December 2005 when an 82-year-old man was arrested for dumping

the heads of about 30 butchered dogs in the outer moat of the Tokyo

Detention House.

" The man said he imported the severed heads and bodies of

dogs from China and sold all body meat, " the Kyodo News Agency

reported. " The heads were left unsold. "

The good news in that episode is that whatever dog-eating

continues has apparently dwindled to a remnant trade involving only

the elderly, whose source of dogs is abroad.

We hope to see the dog and cat meat and fur industries

elsewhere in Asia dwindle comparably in coming years.

 

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Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper

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