China county orders dog cull after quake

[Guest guest]

The policy described below is severely misguided, for

several reasons, even if the sole concern of the authorities is

protecting public health.

 

First, in the aftermath of any disaster, paying attention

to where exactly " stray " dogs are " wandering around " is often a vital

clue to the location of trapped humans and human remains.

 

For example, after the Indian Ocean tsunami, animal rescue

teams were time and again led to human victims by " strays " who were

actually looking for help, and would refuse food and even water

until the rescuers followed them to the location of the living & dead

human victims. Some of the dogs remained on duty in the Andaman

Islands until their humans were in quite advanced decomposition.

 

Trying to tell a pet from a stray in a disaster situation is

practically impossible, as pets are much less used to looking after

themselves than street dogs, & will tend to look & act like street

dogs within just a few days--except for constantly trying to lead

humans to particular locations where they last saw or sniffed their

people.

 

Second, unless one is in the middle of a raging rabies

epidemic, removing dogs from a disaster scene is chiefly likely to

encourage the proliferation of rats and mice. From experience in

India and many other parts of the world, I would suggest that

probably the surest way to spread leptospirosis after an outbreak

starts is to blame and kill the street dogs, who tend to be the

first line of rat control even when there isn't a disaster.

 

Dog purges are also often followed by outbreaks of hantavirus

& any number of other rodent-carried diseases -- but the biggest

problem that may occur with rodents after a disaster is rodent

invasion and consumption of supplies that cannot be stored inside

secure buildings in places where there are no longer any secure

buildings.

 

Two other issues of public health concern:

 

# In a disaster situation, enough work needs to be done to

keep everyone busy without diverting able-bodied personnel and

serviceable vehicles to dog-catching.

 

# Often a surviving pet is all that disaster victims have

left for companionship and comfort, especially in this situation,

where tens of thousands of parents have lost their only child.

Taking any chance of killing someone's pet in this situation is just

plain inhumane, toward the humans as well as the animals.

 

 

China county orders dog cull after quake

Reuters - Monday, May 19 12:55 pm

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese county has launched a drive to cull

ownerless and hungry dogs threatening public health after the

deadliest earthquake to hit the country in more than three decades,

state media said on Monday.

 

The 7.9 magnitude tremor that rocked the southwestern province of

Sichuan on May 12 had killed more than 34,000 people as of Monday.

The government says it expects the toll to eventually rise to more

than 50,000.

 

In Qingchuan county, where more than 2,670 people have died,

authorities have ordered the " collective " culling of dogs to protect

residents and guard against epidemics, the official Xinhua news

agency said.

 

" Most of the dogs in the county have not been fed by anyone and have

been wandering around since the earthquake, " Xinhua quoted local

officials as saying.

 

" They are prone to scramble for food with humans ... and to bite

people and spread diseases. "

 

The dogs will be disinfected and buried deep in the soil, Xinhua said.

 

Health officials said no major outbreaks of infectious diseases had

been reported in the quake area, but they've been on high alert

against any epidemics with such huge human casualties and nearly 5

million displaced people.

 

(Reporting by Guo Shipeng; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Alex Richardson)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

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