50,000 dogs slaughtered in Rabies outbreak
Pastor Dale Morgan
Monday July 31, 2:42 PM
*50,000 dogs slaughtered in Rabies outbreak*
A county in southwest China has ordered all 50,546 dogs to be killed in
an effort to fight a rabies outbreak that has caused the deaths of three
people, state media has said.
Around 90 percent of the dogs in Muding county, Yunnan province, had
already been killed since the campaign began on July 25, the Beijing
News said.
Owners were ordered to kill their pets or face having teams of local
police and other enforcement officers kill them, it said.
Even the 4,292 dogs in the county that had been immunized against rabies
were ordered put to death, as authorities said the immunizations were
not 100 percent effective, the report said.
From January through July, 360 people in the county had been bitten by
dogs, with the three human deaths occurring since April, the Beijing
Times said.
Some owners have used methods including hanging their dogs,
electrocuting them and clubbing them to death, while others used drugs,
the Beijing News said.
Dog owwners had been compensated five yuan (60 cents) each for the loss
of their pets.
A reporter for the Beijing News who visited the county said one woman
was told by dog-elimination squads patrolling the streets that her dog
had to be killed. She covered her eyes as the patrollers beat her dog to
death.
To prevent dog owners from violating the order, roadside checkpoints had
been set up to inspect vehicles for dogs, the Beijing News said. Any
dogs found were immediately killed at the scene.
Only police dogs and canines used to guard military artillery warehouses
were spared.
China has laws banning harm to endangered animals. But there are no
regulations protecting other animals, including pets.
A small but growing number of animal activists and pet owners in China
are pushing to build a humane society and legislate animal protection,
but those efforts are usually only in big cities.