Chinese county culls 50,000 dogs Edit: Now 500,000

:fume: :fume: :fume:

I would love to see a Chinese police officer try to take my dog away from me.

What about capturing and testing the animals instead. Oh wait. Sorry I am using common sense and we are talking about China. Common sense and China are like oil and water.

:fume: :fume: :fume: :fume: :fume:

Smoke screen for China is exporting dog meat to Korea to improve relations…Movie at 11.

If anyone want to support a great organization located in China:

www.animalsasia.org

They are trying to put a stop to dog and cat eating in Guangjou and put a stop to bear farming. If you don’t know what’s bear farming, then you haven’t been to China yet…

Excellent link Nama. Thank you, I’m adding the link to the animal welfare organisations sticky thread.

What link? :s

What link? :s[/quote] :blush: I meant to write SherryX, not Namahottie. I’m talking about the link for Animals Asia SherryX posted. Sorry about that, it’s the heat… :wink:

Oooops.

I forgot to add the link to the story.

edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiap … index.html

If anyone wants to help the protest of this situation in China, go to the following link. Please, anyone with a good heart should do it. It would only take a few minutes.

Thanks.

animalsasia.org/index.php?mo … os=1&lg=en

Just in the news today, another place in China is going to cull 500 000 dogs.

A petition to be sent to the US ambassador to China can be signed here
Goal 50 000 signatures.
thepetitionsite.com/takeacti … 1154732209

I’m not suggesting the culling is justified, but to be fair you should point out that at least 3 people have apparently died of rabies in that region by being bitten by such dogs, at least according to today’s TT. I didn’t read the article closely, or others on the subject, but rabies is a terrible disease – I believe it’s almost always fatal if one doesn’t get ones shots.

I changed the thread title. Now it’s up to 500,000 dogs.

edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiap … index.html

But they didn’t need to beat the dogs to death, MT, they could’ve used other methods. I don’t know what methods, I’m not an expert, but I’m sure there must be a better way than to beat dogs to death, even if front of their owners.

They could just make owners of dogs get a certificate of health. Or provide proof of rabies vaccination. Instead of beating them to death in their owner’s yards.

From the SCMP.

[quote]Officials from Jining city in central Shandong province on Thursday said they would kill all dogs within five kilometres of villages where rabies was found, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The measures come in response to the deaths of 16 people in the city from rabies in the past eight months.

It gave no estimate of how many animals would be killed but said the city had a total population of about 500,000 dogs.[/quote]

The only positive in this story is that there has been a huge outcry on mainland internet chat sites, like Sina.com. There is hope.

[quote]China’s dog slaughter raises pet lovers’ hackles
By Mure Dickie in Beijing

August 4 2006 19:47

The government-ordered slaughter of tens of thousands of dogs has shone a spotlight on the changing feelings of ordinary Chinese towards their canine companions – and exposed the officials behind the killings to unusual criticism.

The “dog-beating storm” was ignited this week by newspaper reports from south-western Yunnan province, where 54,429 dogs – 99 per cent of the Mouding county canine population – were destroyed after three local people died of rabies.

To track down hidden dogs, officials set off firecrackers and banged pots during the night, then followed the sound of barking.

[b]But human howls of complaint have proved harder to silence. Internet discussion boards have hummed with outrage and protest has even spilled into state newspapers usually reluctant to criticise government actions directly.

Indiscriminate slaughter was an uncivilised way to respond to rabies, wrote contributor Lin Weiping in the official Beijing Youth Daily.

“This is a classic case of lazy government,” Mr Lin wrote. “When local authorities set such an example of barbarity and govern so lazily, what happiness will the common people have to speak of?” [/b]

The killings have extra resonance in what is China’s Year of the Dog. The reaction has highlighted changing attitudes since the animal’s last appearance in the zodiacal cycle 12 years ago.

In 1994, dog-beating squads were common even in big cities and the People’s Daily, mouthpiece of the ruling Communist party, was demanding an end to the newly popular but “uncivilised and unhealthy” practice of keeping dogs as pets.

Beaters in Yunnan province alone killed 10m dogs in the three years to 1991, state media reported then, with no hint of protest. China’s urban middle classes have since become hugely enthusiastic pet owners and are increasingly open to ideas of animal rights and restrained government.

Still, the scale of the current debate – fuelled on Thursday by plans for another slaughter in eastern Shandong province – also reflects unusual tolerance by government censors, usually quick to shut down media criticism of authorities.

Not all the comment has been critical. Many columnists and internet users have said human interests should trump those of animals.

And there has been little discussion of the canine role in Chinese cuisine.

Dogs’ culinary potential has been a comfort to some victims of the Mouding county cull. A local news-paper quoted one resident as saying he hanged his two dogs on government orders, but then checked them for signs of rabies. “Inspection showed they were very healthy, so he invited some good friends over to eat dog meat,” it said. [/quote]

HG

I wonder how many government officials had their dogs spared from the cull?

http://www.peta.org/feat-china1.asp

Here is a link to PETA’s response to this barbaric act.

Calcutta had an average of 200 human rabies deaths a year leading from dog bites. They used the catch-and-kill method for almost a hundred years, employing all kinds of methods, including poisoning, but it had little effect on the number of human deaths.

Then they tried CNR. Within a couple of years, the number of rabies deaths in humans went from 200 per year to just one in two years. CNR works. Catch-and-kill doesn’t.

Well said, stray dog.
The answer is not culling but widespread vaccination. Of course, by not sparing even the vaccinated dogs, the Chinese officials have just ensured that dog owners in Yunnan are not going to bother wasting their money on vaccinations in the future. If it’s not going to prevent your dog from being beaten to death in front of you anyhow, what’s the point, right?