(CN) Dog owners unleash their power

[Guest guest]

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

South China Morning Post

http://focus.scmp.com/focusnews/ZZZUOUPD9WE.html

by LAURENCE BRAHM

 

When Mao Zedong said " Political power comes from the barrel of a gun, " the

last thing on his mind was that the scales of social power in Beijing would

begin to tip because police began nabbing dogs in late 2006. It's a safe bet

that he didn't have the political power of dog owners in mind.

 

A round-up of dogs began in August as part of Beijing's preparations for the

2008 Olympics. But the vigour of the campaign seemed closer to a Cultural

Revolution political purge than a cleanup.

In central Beijing, dogs that stood taller than 35 centimetres were

impounded indiscriminately, angering everyone from ordinary citizens to

foreign ambassadors. Many asked how, given Beijing's unprecedented

investment in repackaging its international image through the Olympics, it

could tarnish its reputation with a pet persecution campaign out of a bygone

era.

Beijing authorities defended themselves by citing Lu Xun , a revolutionary

writer associated with the historic May Fourth Movement of 1919. Lu wrote

that as China was being carved up by foreign interests, its leaders were

guilty of " playing with things and losing [their] intelligence " - wan wu

shang zhi. He was referring to Manchurian pastimes such as raising crickets,

birds and Pekingese dogs. But such logic fails to jibe with the image of an

Olympic host country today.

The recent anti-dog campaign is not without political precedent. In 1955,

during the Great Leap Forward, leaders launched " patriotic cleansing "

efforts to eliminate flies, mosquitoes, rodents and cockroaches. It became

extreme, dragging into the net the wholesale slaughter of rodents and snakes

- and creating a disaster of environmental imbalances that rural China is

still recovering from.

During the Cultural Revolution, dogs were virtually wiped out by similar

slaughters.

The 2006 campaign unrolled with equally overwhelming central propaganda

blitzed across CCTV and Xinhua. It depicted rabies spreading nationally, and

blamed pets.

Jeff He Yong of the International Federation for Animal Welfare, said this

traditional approach created conflicts between dog owners and enforcement

agencies because it " blocked the channels of communication between people

and government " . The outraged public responded with protests, putting people

power back into Beijing's streets.

" When a social class is affected by methods of enforcement and [cannot air

their complaints to upper-level government agencies] they make noise, and

will indirectly force upper levels to be aware of them, " he said.

Public lobbying efforts began with dog owners spearheaded by Zhang Weiping,

director of the Beijing Human Animal Environmental Education Centre. She

launched a petition campaign calling for an end to the campaign. The appeal

was heard: President Hu Jintao called an end to the national crackdown in

November.

" We submitted a rational analysis of what we thought the problem was - not a

protest letter, " Mr He said of the lobbying process, in which he played a

major role. " We suggested the only way to control rabies was to vaccinate

dogs and people against this disease. It wasn't related to how tall the dog

is or how many you raise. We pointed out that raising dogs is not in

conflict with President Hu Jintao's establishment of a harmonious society.

" Enforcing old rules created conflicts. Moreover, this programme affected

the government's accountability to people and tarnished Beijing's reputation

as the 2008 Olympic host. Our lobbying approach worked. "

Some 600 pets remain impounded outside Beijing. Even so, this was a lobbying

victory which reflects an emerging people power. It is capable of thwarting

misguided policies out of sync with social trends, or hopelessly outdated

regulations from another era.

If this turns into a trend touching other issues, we may be witnessing the

beginning of a new era of political participation with Chinese

characteristics.

Laurence Brahm is a political economist, author, filmmaker and founder of

Shambhala Foundation.