Second mass dog slaughter in China

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Second mass dog slaughter in China

 

 

Friday, August 4, 2006 Posted: 1709 GMT (0109 HKT)

 

 

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- For the second time in days, Chinese

authorities have ordered a mass slaughter of dogs to curb a rabies

outbreak -- drawing criticism from animal lovers but also support

from many who say it's the only way to contain a disease that kills

more than 2,000 Chinese a year.

Officials in the eastern city of Jining plan to kill all dogs within

three miles of areas where rabies has been found, the official Xinhua

News Agency said Friday.

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 when

the slaughter would begin or how the animals would be killed. It said

the city had about 500,000 dogs.

Rabies cases are on the rise in China, with 2,651 reported deaths

from the disease in 2004, the last year for which data was available.

Only 3 percent of the country's dogs are vaccinated against rabies.

Last week, a county in southwestern Yunnan province killed 50,000

dogs, many of them beaten to death in front of their owners, after

three people died of rabies.

The slaughters have outraged animal rights groups, who call them

cruel and a sign of government incompetence in dealing with rabies,

an often fatal disease that attacks the nervous system but which can

be warded off with a series of injections.

" I think this is completely insane, " said Zhang Luping, founder of

the Beijing Human and Animal Environmental Education Center.

" What's more, this really damages our national image and sets a

really bad example to show how lazy and inconsiderate those local

government officials are, " Zhang said.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called such killings a

" hideously cruel response, " in a statement on its Web site.

After last week's slaughter, the group canceled about $300,000 orders

for merchandise made in China and called for a boycott of

Chinese-made products to protest what it calls widespread cruelty to

animals in the country.

The killings in Yunnan prompted unusually pointed criticism in state

media, with many commentators saying it signaled how little capacity

the local government had to deal with routine health issues.

Other slaughters have been reported elsewhere in China this year,

although the government says it has no standard policy of destroying

dogs.

Zhang, the founder of the Beijing education center, said there were

no laws under which citizens could stop the killings. However, she

said she and other animal protection activists were reaching out

through the media to try to change policy.

" I think this brutal and cold-blooded campaign should stop as soon as

possible, " Zhang said.

People who answered the phone at Jining's city government and the

epidemic control center refused to comment or said they weren't

authorized to release information to the 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 within China's health care system.

The killings have also prompted a slew of impassioned postings in

online forums.

" Tens of thousands of people die in traffic accidents each year, but

we don't ban cars. Dogs are simply easy to persecute, " said one

unsigned posting on Xinhua's electronic bulletin board.

" People opposed to killing dogs ought to think how they'd feel if

they or a relative was infected with rabies. Are people's or dogs'

lives more important? " said another, also unsigned.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This

material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

--

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Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

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