China's campaign to kill all pet dogs

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Thousands of dogs will be culled in a Chongqing district following the death
of a resident from rabies last month.
The Wanzhou district government has issued a directive asking residents in
the central city area to have their dogs put down before March 15.
Exemptions are government department guard dogs, and those kept by research
institutions, the military and for commercial purposes.

The government will cull the dogs, whether they are vaccinated or not, if
the residents do not do so before the deadline. Owners will be fined between
200 yuan and 1,000 yuan for every dog found after that date.

It is the latest of a series of dog culls carried out by local governments
in response to rabies fears. Authorities in Yunnan , Beijing and Guangdong
killed tens of thousands of dogs last year despite strong opposition from
international animal welfare organisations.

The Wanzhou directive, published on the district government's website,
outlines 16 communities and townships suspected of having rabid dogs,
including Taibai Street where a resident died after being bitten by an
unvaccinated dog last month.

"All the dogs in the area should be killed. A compulsory cull phase will
begin after March 16. The forced cull will be carried out by police," the
directive said.

Ran Hua , an official with the district disease control and prevention
centre said: "The move is aimed at protecting people's lives. Wanzhou has
not had a reported human case of rabies for the nine years up until last
year when three cases were reported. We must do something to prevent the
situation from worsening."

Mr Ran said the cull and fine were in line with Chongqing's regulations.
Residents have voiced strong opposition to the cull but Mr Ran said the
killing was necessary to eliminate the threat.

Song Yu , a Wanzhou resident who does not have a pet, said: "I understand
the government's intention to protect people's lives, but the extreme
decision to kill is hard for many of my friends. How can they kill the dogs
they've been with for a long time with their own hands, especially when
their pets have been vaccinated?"

Beijing animal-welfare advocate Mang Ping said she was saddened by the
decision.

"If the government educated the public well enough, residents would have had
a vaccine shot right after the bite. If the government had a system to
ensure every pet was vaccinated, the bite would not have been a big
problem," she said.

In Beijing, a "civilised dog keeping" campaign began last October and ended
in December. Under the campaign, dogs taller than 35cm are prohibited from
downtown city areas and no family is allowed to keep more than one pet dog.
Fines were introduced for owners of dogs that soil the street or are
unchained.

The move infuriated dog owners and about 500 staged a protest against the
seizure and culling of pets in the capital in November.