Chinese start another mass dog slaughter

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Chinese start another mass dog slaughter after 16

rabies deaths

Associated Press

Friday, August 4, 2006

 

SHANGHAI, China - A second Chinese city planned a mass

dog slaughter to contain a rabies outbreak, state

media said Friday, days after similar massacre in

another province drew outrage.

 

The measure came in response to the deaths of 16

people from rabies in Jining in the last eight months,

Xinhua said. It didn‘t say how many dogs would be

killed, but said the city had about 500,000.

 

Last week, a county in southwestern Yunnan province

killed 50,000 dogs after three people died of rabies.

The massacre provoked unusually pointed criticism in

state media, while the activist group People For the

Ethical Treatment of Animals called for a boycott of

Chinese products.

 

" I think this is completely insane, " Zhang Luping,

founder of the Beijing Human and Animal Environmental

Education Center, said Friday in response to Jining‘s

announcement.

 

Zhang said there were no laws under which citizens

could stop the killings, but said she and other animal

protection activists were reaching out through the

media to try to change policy.

 

People answering phones at Jining‘s city government

and epidemic control center refused to comment or said

they weren‘t authorized to release information to

media.

 

The World Health Organization has not directly

criticized the slaughters, but WHO experts have said

they underscore a lack of coordination and other

problems with China‘s health care system.

 

Rabies attacks the nervous system. In humans, it

normally results in death within a week after symptoms

develop.

 

http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=151415

 

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