One dog and no more/Dog owners bite back

[Guest guest]

One dog and no more, Beijing families told

BEN ROBERTSON IN BEIJING

Scotsman

10-Nov-06

 

FIRST, they were told they could have only one child. Now families in Beijing

are being told they can have no more than one dog.

 

An outright ban on large and dangerous dogs has also come into force, and anyone

breaking the regulations will be fined up to 5,000 yuan (£400) and have their

pets taken into custody.

 

The controversial measure is in response to an outbreak of rabies that killed

318 people in China in September, according to state media. But it is deeply

unpopular with dog owners, some of whom have threatened to use force to prevent

their pets being seized by police.

 

Once seen as a bourgeois habit, dog ownership has become increasingly popular in

China in recent years, especially among the elderly. There are now more than a

million pet dogs in the capital alone.

 

Banners promoting the new restrictions, asking people to " create a harmonious

society and be a civilised dog raiser " , have gone up in housing areas, and

police are rounding up dogs that don't meet the regulatory profile in what local

media say will be a two-month crackdown. While some dog owners have sent their

pets out of town, others are protesting.

 

Zhang Luping, the owner of a dog shelter, claims that owners have been calling

her repeatedly with complaints and tales of dogs being beaten to death by the

authorities. She hopes to gather a million names on a petition calling on the

city government to change its stance.

 

Beijing pet owners already have to register their dogs and pay an annual fee of

about £60. City-centre residents are prohibited from owning dogs over 35cm

tall, prompting many to walk theirs at night when inspectors are hopefully in

bed.

 

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1662072006

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Dog owners bite back in China’s great pet purge

Michael Sheridan, Far East Correspondent

The Sunday Times

November 12, 2006

 

IN an echo of the days when Chairman Mao denounced his foes as “running

dogsâ€, hundreds of angry pet owners confronted the police in Beijing yesterday

in a protest against the regime’s new “one-dog policyâ€.

 

Eighteen people were arrested in noisy scuffles as about 500 dog owners gathered

in a rare unauthorised demonstration near Beijing Zoo.

 

Several of the middle-class protesters wore badges that read “stop the

killing†and waved furry stuffed toys in the hope of softening the hearts of

the riot police and plain-clothes security men who surrounded them.

 

One complained that the pet-lovers’ protest was treated as if Beijing were

under martial law. Police cordoned off the area, massed hundreds of

reinforcements in nearby streets and tried to stop photography and filming.

 

In cities all over China, dog lovers have been outraged as police have swept

through districts killing unlicensed dogs and confiscating others in a

nationwide purge of the animals.

 

The aim is to rid the streets of strays and to fight rabies, which claimed 326

lives in China last month alone. It is the heavy-handed and arbitrary imposition

of the rules which has the pet owners up in arms.

 

Yesterday’s protest was sparked by police raids on an area of luxury villas.

According to the state news agency, Xinhua, the security forces discovered six

“large unlicensed dogs†in the dragnet. It did not disclose their fate.

Elsewhere, residents have reported seeing policemen beating dogs to death in the

street.

 

Only dogs shorter than 14 inches are allowed. “Mastiffs, dobermans, saint

bernards and great danes are banned,†Xinhua said, along with any dog

considered “dangerousâ€.

 

Now dog owners in Beijing say they often have to sneak out at night to exercise

their pets. The lack of green space in the capital, which resembles a gargantuan

building site as it prepares for the 2008 Olympics, is also a problem.

 

For decades, pets were seen as a decadent, bourgeois indulgence, redolent of the

days when the dowager empress kept a retinue of pekinese for her entertainment.

 

Most pets vanished during the cultural revolution, when revolutionaries sought

to banish any symbols of private wealth or status.

 

With economic reform, dog-owning is becoming increasingly popular. According to

official Chinese figures, there were 550,000 dogs registered in Beijing this

year, up by 20% on a year earlier.

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2449757,00.html