Anguish and relief over rabies 'cure'

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Anguish and relief over rabies 'cure'

The Standard

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

 

China enforces a cold-blooded solution to protect the

public from outbreaks of the killer disease, writes

Gillian Wong

 

Xu Keju's two dogs were her friends and co-workers,

keeping her company and guarding her goat and

chickens.

 

But then an anti-rabies squad arrived in Xu's village

in eastern China with orders to kill all of its dogs.

 

She lost her canine companions and more; she felt

compelled to sell the goat for fear that it would be

stolen without them to guard it.

 

" I was very sad when they said I had no choice but to

give them up, " said Xu, 44. " After all, I had

developed feelings for them after keeping them for

three years. "

 

Authorities in two areas of China have ordered such

mass killings of thousands of dogs in recent weeks

following rabies outbreaks, prompting anguish for

owners and an outcry by animal lovers.

 

Others, though, express relief at the effort to

protect the public in a country with one of the

highest rates of rabies infection.

 

China's Health Ministry reported 2,375 rabies deaths

last year nationwide. Researchers writing in a journal

published by the US Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention in December said China had the world's

second-highest infection rate.

 

Only India reports more cases, with some 30,000 deaths

annually, according to the World Health Organization.

 

Rabies, often spread by dog bites, attacks the nervous

system and usually kills humans within a week of the

development of symptoms.

 

The number of cases in China has soared as newly

prosperous families buy dogs as pets. The government

says 70 percent of rural households have dogs, while

just 3 percent are vaccinated against rabies.

 

Even in Beijing, some 69,000 people sought treatment

for rabies last year.

 

In Dongling, on the outskirts of the city of Jingling

in Shandong province, teams of men arrived two weeks

ago and beat dogs to death with wooden poles and

pitchforks, then trucked away their bodies, villagers

said.

 

The area around Jingling has suffered 16 human deaths

from rabies over the past eight months, and

authorities ordered all dogs destroyed within five

kilometers of a fatality.

 

News reports say the area, with a population of eight

million people, has about 500,000 dogs.

 

In crowded Guangdong province, more than 300 people

died of the disease last year, the highest toll there

in a decade, according to news reports.

 

Last month all 50,000 dogs in Mouding County in Yunnan

province were ordered destroyed after rabies killed

three people. Only police and military dogs were

spared.

 

The dog slaughter prompted an outcry on Internet

chatrooms and even criticism from China's government

press.

 

The newspaper Legal Daily called it a " crude,

cold-blooded and lazy way " to respond after

authorities failed to prevent disease.

 

But Xinhua News Agency said that once rabies was

detected, the slaughter was the " only way out of a bad

situation. "

 

In Dongling, some villagers express sorrow while

others are relieved.

 

" Losing my dogs has affected my livelihood because now

I have no one to guard my home when I'm away, " Xu

said. " What's the use of rearing goats if they could

easily be stolen now? "

 

But her neighbor, a 33-year-old farmer who would only

give his surname, Kong, said he felt his two

daughters, aged two and eight, would be safer.

 

" It's better without the dogs, " Kong said, bouncing a

toddler in his arms.

 

" I'm less worried now when my daughters are playing

outside, because I'm not afraid that they may get

bitten by the dogs and get rabies. "

 

Another villager, Li Xiaolian, said her eight-year-old

nephew died a month ago, probably from rabies. Li said

that although her family has always kept dogs she

would support the killings if they could prevent other

deaths.

 

Villagers said they were paid 10 yuan (HK$9.74) for

each dog, a price many called unfairly low.

 

In other towns, owners have been ordered to register

dogs and vaccinate them, which costs 200 yuan per

animal - several times what a farmer might pay for a

puppy.

 

Dongling was eerily quiet last Sunday afternoon, a

time when visitors to villages usually see puppies

chasing after barefoot children.

 

Not every family, though, had cooperated with the

anti-rabies squad.

 

Through the cracks of a backyard wall, a visiting

reporter could see a small black dog that apparently

was hidden from the crackdown. It whined forlornly for

attention but got no response.

 

ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

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