CHINA / Foreign Media on China

One 'best friend' law in Beijing

(NYtimes)
Updated: 2006-11-14 16:13

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/14/world/asia/14dogs.html?hp&ex=11635668
00&en=f589f86ab2f08158&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Wu Tianyu gave fair warning about the odor and then pushed open the heavy
metal door to the ground-floor apartment. The smell rushed out, and so
did the tiny dogs, tongues wagging, yipping, unaware of their central
role in an issue gripping China's capital city.

In this, the Year of the Dog in the Chinese calendar, the pets enjoy the
Coolbaby Dog Theme Park in Beijing. [The New York Times]

The small apartment was the equivalent of a safe house: Ms. Wu, head of a
local animal rescue association, had stashed about 10 strays and
handicapped mutts. She said the dogs, one paralyzed, another recovering
from a broken spine, should be exempt from a new "strike hard" campaign
against dogs in Beijing. But she was not certain.

"They cannot move out these dogs!" she declared. But then she hesitated
slightly, "How could they do it?"

Beijing is a city of at least 12 million people and at least a million
dogs, about half of which are unregistered and deemed fugitives in the
eyes of the local police.

The complication, of course, is that many of these fugitives are also
beloved pets, so confrontation is almost inevitable and has been rising
in recent weeks as the police have begun a swift and harsh crackdown
against illegal dogs.

The police have already rejected applications by different pet advocacy
groups to stage demonstrations. On Saturday, at least 100 police officers
blocked roads as a large crowd congregated outside the city zoo. One
participant said officers manhandled and detained more than 20 people who
tried to hand out leaflets promoting animal protection. The people were
released later the same day.

The conflict is over city regulations that limit households in eight
designated districts to a single dog and also forbid people from owning
large dogs like golden retrievers and huskies.

The regulations, considered misguided by many dog owners, were introduced
in 2003 but have been only loosely enforced as the city's pet industry
has boomed. Dogs in Beijing can now eat at a dog restaurant, be groomed
at a dog boutique and swim in an outdoor dog lap pool.

Last Tuesday, though, Beijing newspapers carried a notice about the new
campaign, under way since October, concerning "pet dog management work."
It said households with too many dogs, or with big dogs, would have 10
days to relocate them. In essence, owners had 10 days to get rid of the
dogs or the police would do it for them.

The note also promised to pay rewards to people who helped the police
catch neighbors violating the dog rules.

Anxiety and outrage have quickly spread among dog owners. Several
reported that the police were already apprehending large dogs in
apartment compounds and had even entered individual apartments to seize
some dogs. Web sites posted photographs of dogs crammed into holding pens
at dingy city pounds. Another Internet posting warned that a slaughter of
stray dogs and cats would begin next week.

"We are all worried," said a woman who owns several dogs and asked not to
be identified for fear the police would try to seize her pets. She is
building a kennel in her uncle's village in nearby Hebei Province to
ensure that her dogs and others are not seized.

Rabies is the primary reason offered for the new crackdown. Nationally,
China reported that 1,735 people died from the disease between January
and August, a 29 percent increase from the period a year earlier. The
Ministry of Health said growing numbers of people were taking dogs as
pets without properly vaccinating them.

But what has horrified pet advocates worldwide is the brutal solution
that some places in China have adopted to solve the rabies problem. This
summer, officials in one section of Yunnan Province ordered an
extermination campaign that led to the slaughter of more than 54,000
dogs. Another smaller extermination drive was held in Shandong Province.

Grace Ge Gabriel, the Asia director for the International Fund for Animal
Welfare, said her group agreed that dog owners should vaccinate their
pets and register them. But she said Beijing's current ban against big
dogs was wrongheaded because it was based on the premise that they are
more vicious.

She also said that using rabies to justify the crackdown was misleading
because Beijing did not have a rabies problem, a point confirmed by a
state media report.

Last Friday, at the Huayuan Street police precinct in the northeastern
quadrant of the city, a red-and-white banner stated: "If You Have a Dog,
You Need a License." Inside, at the Dog Management Office, Shi Chenhe
said he had registered 10 new dogs in recent days and argued that rabies
and dog bites were serious problems in Beijing.

He said officials wanted to ensure that no one was bitten and injured
during the 2008 Olympics. "Of course, it is related to the Games," Mr.
Shi said. "Everything needs to be cleaned up before the Olympics."

Mr. Shi said that officers in his precinct had not begun cracking down on
illegal dogs but that each police district was handling the issue
differently. "We're waiting to be notified," he said.

Ms. Wu, the head of the association for stray dogs, has been racing to
different meetings with dog advocates, trying to find a solution, and
some dog owners have told her they will defend their dogs at any cost.

"People are saying that if they have to, they will fight back," Ms. Wu
said. "I told the young people that they shouldn't fight back. It is the
order of the government. If you fight back, it will hurt the dogs in the
long run."

Across town at a trendy pet store, Man Qingwei, 32, helped hold down his
two border collies on Friday afternoon as an attendant cleaned the dogs'
ears with a cotton swab. Mr. Man bought the dogs recently even though he
knew their size violated city regulations. "Of course, we hide them," Mr.
Man said as his girlfriend patted the collies. "I have to sneak them out
quickly into my car."

Mr. Man said he wanted dog owners to organize to force the city to change
the rules. "I think the one-dog rule is ridiculous," he said. "It's a
matter of one's personal life and tastes. You should be able to have as
many dogs as you like."

Mr. Man said that he and his girlfriend owned several dogs but that the
new regulations were making ordinary tasks difficult. "We can no longer
walk them," he said. "I'm thinking about buying them a treadmill."

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