A Chinese Outcry: Doesn’t a Dog Have Rights?

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A Chinese Outcry: Doesn’t a Dog Have Rights?

EyePress, via Associated Press

By HOWARD W. FRENCH

Published: August 10, 2006

 

SHANGHAI, Aug. 9 — It was late last month, the boy

said, his voice still tinged with emotion, when he and

his father were forced to march their two German

shepherds to a public square and hang them from a

tree.

 

The boy, Xia Shaoli, was not alone in his pain.

Officials in Mouding County in southwestern Yunnan

Province had ordered the mass extermination of dogs,

pets as well as strays, after three people died in a

rabies outbreak. And as a crowd gathered around a

large tree in the village of Xiajiashan, owners

complied one after another with commands to string

their dogs up.

 

According to official figures, 54,429 dogs were killed

during the Yunnan campaign. Reports in the Chinese

news media say that some people out walking their dogs

had the animals seized by gangs of vigilantes, who

clubbed the dogs to death on the spot.

 

The events in Yunnan have been quickly followed by

rabies scares in other parts of China. On Wednesday,

the Chinese news media reported the killings of 280

dogs in Wuxi, a city near Shanghai, and 13 in the city

of Fuzhou in southern Fujian Province.

 

Earlier this week, a cluster of 16 villages in the

southwestern part of Shandong Province declared a

rabies alert, and county officials have drafted a dog

extermination plan that would call for the killing of

any dog found within a three-mile radius of any known

rabies case.

 

There are half a million dogs in the city of Jining,

which encompasses the 16 villages, the official New

China News Agency says. Officials there said their

extermination plan was scheduled to begin later this

month. There have also been reports of smaller

extermination schemes in other parts of the country,

notably in Sichuan Province.

 

As remarkable as the killings themselves, however, has

been the response. With its rising prosperity, China

is developing a pet-owning culture, with dogs standing

out as a particular favorite. As word of the killings

has spread here, pet owners have begun to mobilize —

speaking out online and circulating petitions — to try

to stop the killings.

 

In fact, discussion of the issue has surpassed the

bounds of a simple conversation about pets’ rights,

with many commentators sharply questioning a system

that could order the mass extermination of dogs,

whether or not they are licensed and vaccinated. The

reaction of groups and individuals, often through the

Internet, also provides a striking illustration of the

emergence of true public opinion in China, unmediated

by the official press or censors.

 

“This is just another stupid decision by several

foolish officials taken in a small room, totally

unreflective of the people’s will,” said a comment on

Mop, a current affairs forum.

 

Some drew comparisons with China’s human rights

situation. “We don’t have human rights, let alone dog

rights,” wrote a commentator going by the name of Kui

Kui Xiang Ri, on the Tianya forum. “I’ve seen too much

live abuse, let alone abuse of dogs. Anyway, it’s the

local emperors who have their say, and we ordinary

folks are not much different from dogs in their eyes.”

 

Chinese humane societies have announced plans to file

lawsuits against local governments that mount

extermination campaigns. “This kind of thing is just

too terrible, too inhumane,” said Huang Juan, a leader

of the Abandoned Pets Assistance Center, in Wuhan.

“They did it without any real reason, since many of

these dogs are vaccinated and cannot spread rabies.

But how can you speak reason with these people?”

 

Another group, the China Small Animal Protection

Association, said it would sue. “We are meeting with

lawyers the day after tomorrow, and will go to court

and bring charges against two local governments,” said

Lu Di, the group’s director. “I will not just try to

persuade, warn or criticize them — it’s too late for

that. We will sue them to make them understand that

this is not merely a moral issue, but a crime.”

 

On Wednesday, the Humane Society of the United States

offered $100,000 to China to establish a program to

control rabies in Jining, The Associated Press

reported.

 

More broadly, others pointed out that the

extermination campaigns contradict the guiding

ideology of China’s current leaders, who constantly

invoke the need to build a “harmonious society.”

 

Although the extermination programs are being widely

denounced here, there is no doubting that rabies

remains a severe problem in China. Nationwide, 961

people died of the disease in the first six months of

the year, and last year, 2,545 people died. By

contrast, rabies deaths in most Western countries are

extremely rare.

 

Experts say the persistence of the disease reflects

the breakdown of the rural health care system, once

one of the proudest achievements of Chinese Communism.

Many poor rural provinces view canine rabies

vaccinations as a costly burden. Meanwhile, an oral

vaccine, which is far easier to administer, is not

imported, partly because of its cost.

 

“Many farmers are reluctant to get shots for their

dogs, because it’s not always free, whereas the

veterinary system at the township level has become

very inadequate,” said Luo Tingrong, a rabies expert

at Guangxi University. “There isn’t much investment

into the system.”

 

China Plans a Rare-Animal Hunt

 

BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Reuters) — China plans to auction

licenses to foreigners to hunt wild animals, including

rare species, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

 

The government will auction the licenses based on the

numbers in each category of animal, ranging from a

starting price of $200 for a wolf, the only predator

on the list, to as much as $40,000 for a yak, The

Beijing Youth Daily said. There are believed to be

fewer than 10,000 mature wild yak in the world.

 

The newspaper said the auction, on Sunday in Chengdu,

capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, would

be a first for China.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/10/world/asia/10china.html?ref=world

 

 

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