CNN: Chinese county culls 50,000 dogs

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Chinese county culls 50,000 dogs

 

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- A county in southwestern China has killed as

many as 50,000 dogs in a government-ordered campaign following the

deaths of three local people from rabies, official media reported on

Tuesday.

 

The five-day massacre in Yunnan province's Mouding county spared only

military guard dogs and police canine units, the Shanghai Daily

reported, citing local media.

 

Dogs being walked were taken from their owners and beaten to death on

the spot, it said. Other killing teams entered villages at night

creating noise to get dogs barking, then homing in on their prey.

 

About 360 of the county's 200,000 residents suffered dog bites this

year, with three reported deaths, including a 4-year-old girl, the

report said.

 

" With the aim to keep this horrible disease from people, we decided

to kill the dogs, " Li Haibo, a spokesman for the county government

was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

 

Calls to county government offices rang unanswered on Tuesday.

 

China has suffered a major rise in the number of rabies cases in

recent years, with 2,651 reported deaths from the disease in 2004,

the last year for which data was available, according to the Chinese

Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

Experts have tied the rise in cases in part to a major increase in

dog ownership, particularly in rural areas where about 70 percent of

households keep dogs. However, rates of rabies vaccination remain

extremely low at only about 3 percent, according to the center.

 

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Find this article at:

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/08/01/china.dogs.ap/index.html

 

>

>Margot Homburg Park <margot

>China

>Tue, 1 Aug 2006 15:14:02 +0700

>

>

>I hope Chinese authorities don't allow this to be repeated:

>

>http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/08/01/china.dogs.ap/index.html

>

>Margot

>

>Margot Homburg Park

>margot

>+66(0)9-895-9965

> " WHILE MAN HAS SOMETIMES SUCCEEDED IN DRAGGING THE DOG DOWN TO HIS

>LEVEL, THE DOG HAS ONLY OCCASIONALLY SUCCEEDED IN RAISING MAN TO HIS

>LEVEL OF SAGACITY. "

>(James Thurber)

 

 

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