(CN) The rabid reaction force

[Guest guest]

A video on the Net showing men laughing as they kill a dog amid a cull has

angered animal-lovers

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vgnextoid=2b019bc7475b1210VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD & ss=China & s=News

South China Morning Post

By Simon Parry

Jun 07, 2009

 

It is a scene to make the most ardent animal-hater wince in shock.

Pathetically unaware that it is just 30 seconds from death, a dog stands

wagging its tail expectantly as three men carrying bamboo poles edge towards

it and surround it on the edge of a dusty village track.

There is a moment's pause before the first blow, delivered from behind,

lands on the dog's neck. It yelps in surprise and pain, then scrambles back

and forth in panic as the poles crack down again and again, shattering its

spine and leaving it writhing semi-conscious in a pool of its own blood.

 

To the laughs and raucous hoots of his colleagues, one of the four men then

steps forward theatrically and delivers the coup de grace to the helpless

creature - a deadly blow that cracks the skull apart and makes the dog's

body shudder momentarily before coming to a rest.

 

This is rabies control, mainland-style.

 

In the space of just 10 days, 20,000 stray dogs have been slaughtered in the

city of Hanzhong and surrounding towns and villages in response to a rabies

outbreak that officials say has led to the deaths of eight people since

March. Two people remain in hospital.

 

What made the death of this one dog less commonplace than the thousands of

others was the fact that it was captured on video and then uploaded onto the

internet along with dozens of other photos and video clips as part of what

appears to be a mounting sense of community unrest over slaughters of this

kind.

 

The scenes that have emerged from this city at the heart of Shaanxi province

seem more suited to medieval times than modern China.

 

They show gangs of men roaming the streets with poles and boulders, dead

dogs piled up on wooden carts, the bodies of pets with collars lying

mutilated and bleeding by roadsides.

 

" I watched that video with absolute disbelief, " said Jill Robinson, founder

of the Animals Asia Foundation which is supporting groups on the mainland

campaigning for an end to the culls.

 

" Watching those people laughing while they beat the dog to death is like

watching another species. It is just horrible.

 

" We are seeing outrage from concerned animal-lovers and ordinary people in

the street who believe this kind of behaviour is doing nothing for the

reputation of the government or the integrity of the government. Anyone who

can stand back and laugh while animals are being slaughtered in this way is

hurting the image of the country. "

 

It is far from the first time dogs have been slaughtered on the mainland to

eradicate a rabies threat. A nationwide cull took place in the months

leading up to the Olympics, sparking international criticism.

 

What makes the Hanzhong cull unusual, however, is its speed and savagery and

the fact that it appears to have taken place on a sudden and massive scale.

In rural villages, men who one week lived in friendly cohabitation with

communities of semi-stray dogs were transformed into their executioners.

 

The suddenness of that transformation is captured poignantly in the wagging

tail of the dog about to be beaten to death in the video recording. Pictures

circulated among the animal welfare groups show well-groomed dogs with

collars among the piles of corpses.

 

" The killing is indiscriminate, " said Ms Robinson. " There are people who

have their dogs wandering around, as they do in rural areas, and they are

not going to come home because people have been whipped up into a mindless

frenzy and are slaughtering any dog they find. "

 

One of the victims was 55-year-old housewife Bai Lihe's pet dog Doudou, who

was among 300 dogs beaten to death in Xiayishui village. " Doudou was small

and he never bit, " a tearful Bai told her local newspaper. " I had just had

him vaccinated against rabies and they still clubbed him to death. "

 

One of her neighbours, 26-year-old Bai Xinpeng, described how he had locked

himself in his house with his three pet dogs. " I keep them all in my bedroom

and lock my house all the time, " he said. " They've been killing dogs for

quite a while and I've no idea when it will end but I'll protect them for as

long as I can. There used to be nearly 400 dogs in this village. Now it's

hard to spot even one. "

 

There does not appear to be any financial incentive behind the killings -

simply a hysteria driven in part by a campaign which has seen giant banners

strung across city and village streets warning of the outbreak.

 

" Officials haven't had to offer money as an incentive, " Ms Robinson said.

" Chairman Mao didn't offer any incentives when he got people to go out and

kill sparrows. If people are whipped up into enough of a passionate storm

they will go out and do anything, especially if they believe their health is

at risk.

 

" But this is not a reasoned argument. People are going out there haphazardly

killing animals in a reactive way when nothing is backed up by solid

science. "

 

Dang Zhengqing, party secretary for the county covering Xiayishui village,

explained the official rationale for the cull, saying it had ended with the

deaths of all stray dogs in the area. " People are safer now from the

[rabies] epidemic. I understand the public anger but we don't kill owned

dogs on a leash, " he said. " The culling is extreme but necessary to combat

the deadly epidemic. All lives are important but we decided to sacrifice

dogs. "

 

However, even in the mainland's own newspapers the necessity of the

slaughters is coming under question. Tan Xiaodong, a public health professor

at Wuhan University, told China Daily newspaper there was " no justification "

for the killings.

 

" In addition to dogs, animals including cats and bats can also cause rabies.

It's impossible to kill them all, " he said. " To eradicate the disease, what

is needed is long-term proper management and oversight of dog keeping. "

 

It is a message echoed by Animals Asia, which has appealed for an urgent

meeting with the authorities in Hanzhong to discuss ways to stop what it

calls the " cruel and senseless culling " of dogs and to follow the example of

other Asian countries by adopting " trap, neuter and release " programmes to

control the stray dog population.

 

Citing the example of India, where rabies attacks have been significantly

reduced by such programmes, the group argues: " This is not an effective

solution to stopping the spread of disease such as rabies. The vacuum which

culls leave is very quickly filled by new stray animals with similar

problems to those before.

 

" Responsible `trap, neuter, release' programmes allow desexed, vaccinated,

microchipped and now healthier animals to remain in the area, where they

will prevent new and potentially diseased animals from entering their

territory, and where their population will gradually decrease. "

 

It is an argument that appears to be gaining in weight as the voices of dog

owners on the mainland become gradually stronger and more confident. At the

end of last week, a delegation of animal-lovers from Xian travelled to

Hanzhong to press the argument for more humane methods of disease control

with city officials. The fact that lobbying of this kind is taking place,

and the appearance of counter-arguments to official culling policies in

state-run newspapers may be an indication of a gradual change in attitudes

to dog control on the mainland.

 

The cull in Hanzhong will almost certainly not be the last of its kind, but

it may turn out to be the beginning of an end to a form of barbarism that

ill befits a modern superpower.

 

" Two years ago, this wouldn't be happening, " Ms Robinson said. " Now, people

have found a voice and they are using it. They are very upset about what is

happening. We are seeing tears and we are hearing a unified call for people

to stand up and be the voice for these defenceless animals. "

 

Images and further details of the Hanzhong cull are available at

http://www.animalsasia.org