Second Mass Dog Slaughter In China

[jayfish]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/08/04/china.dogs.ap/index.html

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- For the second time in days, Chinese authorities have ordered a mass slaughter of dogs to curb a rabies outbreak -- drawing criticism from animal lovers but also support from many who say it's the only way to contain a disease that kills more than 2,000 Chinese a year.

Officials in the eastern city of Jining plan to kill all dogs within three miles of areas where rabies has been found, the official Xinhua News Agency said Friday.

Last week, a county in southwestern Yunnan province killed 50,000 dogs, many of them beaten to death in front of their owners, after three people died of rabies.

The slaughters have outraged animal rights groups, who call them cruel and a sign of government incompetence in dealing with rabies, an often fatal disease that attacks the nervous system but which can be warded off with a series of injections.

:wtf: kind of health policy is this? I have to agree with some of the opponents quoted in the article, it's just f'ing lazy.

Jay

[mike_c]

1. what animals are vectoring and reservoiring the disease...?

That should be easy enough for public health workers to determine. If dogs are the primary problem, then SOMETHING must be done to force dog owners to vaccinate their animals, but I would think a stiff penalty for the owner would do the trick. If wildlife is the primary disease reservoir, but dogs the main vector to humans, then vaccination should again break the chain. If wildlife is the primary vector, then this program will be utterly ineffective.

[nam78_two]

3. awful just awful/nt

[TaleWgnDg]

2. People's Republic of China . . . ummmmmmm . . .

.

People's Republic of China . . . ummmmmmm . . . so who should be surprised?!

The World Health Organization has not directly criticized the slaughters, but WHO experts have said they underscore a lack of coordination and other problems within China's health care system.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/08/04/china.dogs.ap/index.html

The remaining and only question is why just dogs?

.

[mike_c]

4. presumably because they are the primary vector infecting humans....

This would likely be the case in the U.S., were it not customary (and required by law in most places) to vaccinate pets against rabies. Consequently, rabies is more like to be transmitted from wildlife bites than from dogs-- but the situation would reverse quickly if dogs were not vaccinated.

[Kailassa]

20. Don't ask: "why just dogs" ....or they'll get a bright idea

and start slaughtering humans too.

[shireen]

5. sickening, but it's also a different culture

As a dog-lover, i find this to be utterly disgusting.

But keep in mind that dogs are regarded as food in some parts of the world, including some places in China. There's a large cultural diversity in Asia. There are Chinese dog-lovers who are no doubt very very upset about this. But there are also those who don't see dogs as pets, but as pests or livestock. I'm not trying to justify those actions, which are utterly deplorable and should be stopped immediately, but just reminding you that there are cultural perspectives to consider as well.

Clubbing dogs to death is horribly inhumane, as is the seal-clubbing that takes place in Canada. The best thing we can do is publicize it and protest it, to shame countries that treat animals with such cruelty. I'm glad that CNN is covering this story.

:cry:

[emmadoggy]

6. This is mind-boggling to me...

Just bludgeon all the dogs. Only 3% of dogs are vaccinated for rabies. WHY? Can't they mandate that all dogs be vaccinated or owners face fines, impound the dogs etc? And why are so many people getting to the point of dying from it when it is treatable if tended to early?

You're right. This is an incompetent and seriously f'd up health policy when there are so many more appropriate ways they could manage this. Not to mention the cruelty and brutality to the animals and their owners. Unspeakable. :cry:

[Kagemusha]

7. Money.

Pure and simple, money.

It's probably a lot cheaper in China just to slaughter the dogs.

[emmadoggy]

9. Yes. I know. It's just sad and pathetic.

:-(

[varun]

8. stray dogs

I dont know about China, but there are many stray (unwanted, wild) dogs in India. These dogs reproduce wildly, and often become rabid. They are usually emaciated, living off of the garbage and leftover food. Many a times, the city officials have to kill the dogs if there is a rabies outbreak.

[emmadoggy]

10. If it were just stray dogs

that is one thing (still horrible). I understand needing to control stray dog populations. But the article doesn't say anything about it just being stray dogs. They are saying ALL dogs in a certain area. And it says the dogs are being beaten to death in front of their owners.

[Raine]

11. Why the heck aren't

they giving the dogs rabies shots??

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. Good question...Sign this petition if you haven't already

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/remove_me.html?key=131317412/e9e8c0d5751c4dcbfb27eb19d581fa7b/100919528

[Raine]

18. I went to sign it but

it had been removed from the site. :-(

[MrPrax]

13. I suspect this frenzy...

has other motives:

From an eariler story same topic:

"...Squads in Mouding, Yunnan province, grabbed pets from their owners while they were out for walks and beat them to death on the spot, the Shanghai Daily reported.

Dog owners were offered a five yuan (75 US cents) reward for killing their animals. Those who attempted to hide their pets indoors were flushed out by late-night squads who made loud noises outside to make the dogs bark.

Mail and Guardian

So what happens to the 5 yuan if a mob kills the dog instead?

I am thinking it's a bounty and ergo the frenzied crowds who are probably out clubbing and killing anything for profit and NOT for public health concerns -- which as most posters have pointed out, should be some co-ordinated effort to find the source and treat the contact arc.

Could it be rats as well?

However -- this might simply be the tip of an iceberg and the Chinese are being less than candid:
(from the post)

The measure came in response to the deaths of 16 people from rabies in Jining in the last eight months, Xinhua said. It didn't say when the slaughter would begin or how the animals would be killed. It said the city had about 500,000 dogs.

It was only 4 deaths before these new reports...

[brentspeak]

14. Repubs and neolibs love China

More specifically, they love China's slave labor that kills American jobs.

[orleans]

15. how sick! that government has as much compassion

as bush!

[ConcernedCanuk]

16. hmmm - 50,000 dogs - sure saves cleaning up a lot of doggie doo-doo!

.
.
.

The "west" imposed their values on the Middle East

deposing the "Butcher of Baghdad"

we see how well that worked out

OUR values don't always work in another society

Lawdy knows they ain't working so well in our OWN society

And with a country of over 1.3 Billion people

Extreme measures may be necessary

So we should not think of this as cruelty, I think the Chinese government sees it as a necessity

We MUST learn to see things from other people's views

Or we will never understand them

[bread_and_roses]

17. I'm not about to understand beating dogs to death

I can understand destroying the dogs - especially feral/strays - I think a quick bullet is a lot kinder than starving to death or dying from mange.

But beating them to death? No.

[BrightKnight]

19. Everyone must have their dog beaten to death!

Why can't they license and vaccinate their dogs like every other civilized country?

[lonestarnot]

21. Poor dogs are probably better off now.

[Triana]

22. lazy, cheap, inhumane....

:wtf: else would ya expect from CHINA?

I can't stand that gov't. I won't say bad things about the people but their gov't is pure evil. I'll NEVER, EVER forgive them for taking over Tibet, destroying it and its people, and causing the HHDL to have to flee to India. And almost daily they do something else disgusting -- not to mention the fact that every damned thing I buy says "made in China" on it.

:mad: