(CN) Rabies kills 61 in Hunan, leading to a dog cull

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Rabies kills 61 in Hunan, leading to a dog cull

Xinhua

2007-03-04

 

CHANGSHA, March. 5 (Xinhua) -- Sixty one people in central China's Hunan

Province have died from rabies in first two months of the year, leading the vice

governor to call for a cull of dogs in the province.

 

Gan Lin, vice governor of Hunan, said the government has to kill unvaccinated

dogs to keep the horrible disease away from people.

 

Rabies killed 443 people in Hunan in 2006, which last year was the country's

most deadly infectious disease.

 

Since 1996, rabies has killed 2,719 people in Hunan, said Gan.

 

The increasing number of pet dogs and low vaccination rates are blamed for the

rabies epidemic in the province, said Gan, without providing details on the

number of pets that have caused the spread of the disease.

 

Experts from the provincial center of disease prevention warn that rabid dogs

and other animals including bats can spread the deadly disease to humans through

a bite or scratch that breaks the skin.

 

The disease can remain latent for days, months and even years. The disease is

always fatal once symptoms appear.

 

People who are bitten can be effectively treated prior to the onset of symptoms.

Like dogs, people can also be vaccinated against the disease.

 

http://english.sina.com/china/1/2007/0304/105416.html

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[The article above says the vice-governor is 'calling for a cull' but according

to this December '06 Shanghaiist blog post - with a link to a Chinese article

about it - the cull started in December]

 

Shanghaiist blog:

 

December 16, 2006

 

A Changsha dog cull?

 

While Beijing's controversial (and halted?) " one dog policy " has been grabbing

headlines of late, other dog-related news has been happening out in Changsha,

the capital of Hunan province. It turns out they've had a dog/rabies problem,

and as of December 11 started to kick their campaign into high gear by rounding

up all animals deemed in violation of their dog laws. This included killing 30

dogs during the first day, which was accomplished with clubs, mostly. Dogs that

do not have licenses, dogs that are not kept properly (we don't know quite what

that means, but at least one owned dog was killed because of this regulation),

etc. were all dealt with. The report has some stories in it of the day's

happenings, such as a black dog that was beaten death and about to be disposed

of until the owner asked that he/she be able to do it themselves. Many owners

whose dogs became victims of these policies seemed either to express sadness or

remorse at not taking the proper precautions. Some were lucky and managed to

cajole the " dog teams " into letting their dogs go, based only a on a verbal

promise that they would get said dog out of the area of jurisdiction where they

were violating laws and regulation.

 

What's weird is that this November 24 report on Changsha's dog policies (in

Chinese) is titled something along the lines of " Changsha's humane way of

dealing with the dog problem. " This article is interesting because it provides

at least one useful bit of information--which is that jurisdiction of the dog

problem got transferred, earlier this year, from some animal issues type

government bureau to the public security bureau. The article mentions that many

people are opposed to the mass mobilization, political campaign styled dog

roundups, and that much of the real work in combating rabies comes in

vaccinations (which may or may not be real) and not beating stray dogs to death.

This leaves us somewhat confused, because without being there, on the ground, we

have no idea of how " humane " the recent Changsha measures have been.

Nonetheless, even a stray dog deserves something better than to be cornered and

beaten to death with clubs. The citizens of Changsha have expressed the opinion

that some form of euthanasia would be preferable to beating dogs to death or

using a bullet to the head. PSB has said that the costs of doing so would be

prohibitive and is instead encouraging people to come up with cost-effective and

humane solutions.

 

http://www.shanghaiist.com/archives/2006/12/16/a_changsha_dog.php