Chinese district: Get rid of your pet dogs or we'll kill them
Last Updated Sep 11, 2015 1:00 PM EDT
BEIJING - A Chinese district government is giving dog owners a stark choice: Get rid of your pets or we'll come to your home and kill them on the spot.
Even in a country where dog ownership is tightly regulated, the order issued this week by the Dayang New District in the eastern city of Jinan is extreme.
"No person is permitted to keep a dog of any kind," said the notice posted on gateposts around the community of mostly high-rise apartment blocks. "Deal with it on your own, or else the committee will organize people to enter your home and club the dog to death right there."
Regional governments have killed stray animals before, but Dayang's order also covers dogs that have been registered and vaccinated.
Culls often follow outbreaks of rabies, a disease that kills about 2,000 Chinese each year, but the order cites only the maintenance of environmental hygiene and "everyone's normal lives" as reasons.
People who answered calls Friday at the district government office said no one was available to discuss the matter.
A dog looks out from its cage at a stall during a dog meat festival at a market in Yulin in southern China's Guangxi province June 22, 2015.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
However, an unidentified worker from the Dayang village committee interviewed by a local television station insisted the order was the will of the majority of the district's more than 1,000 residents.
"Dogs are always defecating all over the place and bothering people. A lot of people were complaining so we wrote a public notice to avoid a conflict," the man said.
The order underscores continuing weaknesses in China's legal system, particularly when it comes to police powers and private property protections. It also points to the lack of rules on pets in public, such as leash laws and fines for not cleaning up after them.
While China has laws protecting endangered species, it has yet to pass animal cruelty legislation.
Chinese often appear sharply divided between animal lovers and those who see dogs as a threat to the public.
The keeping of dogs as pets was effectively outlawed during the first decades of the People's Republic of China and was denounced by Communist leaders as a bourgeois affectation and waste of scarce resources.
Over the last 20 years, however, dog ownership has grown exponentially, despite continuing restrictions on large dogs in urban areas. A nascent animal rights movement has also sprung up, with dog lovers sometimes blockading trucks shipping dogs off to markets to be served to the relatively small percentage who eat their meat.
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I think that they should not have this law! It is very cruel, I think that they should have some sort of system that people get chances to keep there dogs in place. If there dog was to run away or do something that it is not supposed to be doing and they get a strike or a warning and if it happens again the dog will be removed from the home and given to a family that can care for the dog and keep it in the area it is supposed to be. I also think that they should pass the animal cruelty legislation. Some people need guard dog, watch dogs, therapy dogs service dogs. What are these people going to do when they are they have to choose to take care of there dong themselves or have someone invade their homes and kill they pet right on the spot. I just think all around that this is just a crappy law!
ReplyDeletemaybe if some people would know how to take care of their dogs and not let them free roam around the town this wouldnt be a problem
ReplyDeleteI think the chines district should allow people to have dogs if they have them registered and vaccinated. Or have people register for breading permits for the dogs so they dont get compleataly out of contral.
ReplyDeleteI think the chines district should allow people to have dogs if they have them registered and vaccinated. Or have people register for breading permits for the dogs so they dont get compleataly out of contral.
ReplyDeleteif they have to have the law then go ahead and do it why go to jail over a dog
ReplyDeleteIn a country that leads the world in human right violations how can we expect any better treatment for pets.
ReplyDeleteWe can expect better treatment for pets, when they give better respect to human rights.
DeleteWe can expect better treatment for pets, when they give better respect to human rights.
DeleteWhy just get rid of the dogs, they aren't the only animals that can get rabies. The Chinese Government should leave the dogs alone, but have monthly checkups to test the dogs and pets for if they do have it. If they do have the owner decide as to what to do with THEIR Pet.
ReplyDeletethier will always be animals with rabies all over the world so no matter what you wont ever be safe from rabies in less you kill every animal that has it
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DeleteFor a place that has strict laws of endangered animals you think their would be laws protecting other animals from cruelty. They are saying the want to avoid any conflict but saying that they will "organize a committee to enter your home and club your dog to death right there", as a dog owner myself I find this disturbing. I would not allow them to invade my private space and assault man's best friend without a little of fight. If they do this I believe that instead of avoiding a conflict they will start one.
ReplyDeleteIt's just another culture. I think I'm not able to judge, it's just different. It's maybe too hard like change to say if you don't get rid your pets we're killing them. Maybe they should just say that you can not buy dogs anymore like that in 20 years there is no dog anymore.
ReplyDeleteI can see getting rid of the strays sad as that maybe but the vaccinated dogs that are peoples pets the ones that have a home the ones that don't run the street and don't cause problems.
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