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Tuesday, August 08, 2006
China launches another mass dog slaughter Christopher Bodeen Shanghai, China 04 August 2006 05:17 The dog days of summer are murder on China's canines.For the second time in days, a Chinese region has ordered a mass slaughter of dogs to curb a rabies outbreak, drawing criticism from animal lovers but also support from many who say such culls are the only sure way to contain a disease that kills more than 2 000 Chinese every year. Officials in the eastern city of Jining plan to kill all dogs within 5km of areas where rabies has been found, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Friday.The measure came in response to the deaths of 16 people from rabies in Jining in the past eight months, Xinhua said. It didn't say when the cull will begin or how the animals will be killed.It said the city has about 500 000 dogs .Rabies cases are on the rise in China, with 2 651 reported deaths from the disease in 2004, the last year for which data is available. Only 3% of the country's dogs are vaccinated against rabies. Such culls 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."I think this is completely insane," said Zhang Luping, founder of the Beijing Human and Animal Environmental Education Centre."What's more, this really damages our national image and sets a really bad example to show how lazy and inconsiderate those local government officials are," Zhang said. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an activist group that partially represents an increasingly vocal lobby in the West and elsewhere, called such killings a "hideously cruel response", in a statement on its website. The group earlier in the week cancelled about $300 000 in orders for merchandise made in China and called for a boycott of all Chinese-made products to protest what it calls widespread cruelty to animals in the country.That was in direct response to the beating to death of 50 000 dogs on government orders by a county in south-western Yunnan province where three people died of rabies. The killings prompted unusually pointed criticism in state media, with many commentators saying it signalled how little capacity the local government had to deal with routine health issues.Other slaughters have been reported elsewhere in China this year, although the government says it has no standard policy of destroying dogs. Zhang, the founder of the Beijing education centre, said there are no laws under which citizens can stop the killings. However, she said she and other animal protection activists are reaching out through the media to try to change policy."I think this brutal and cold-blooded campaign should stop as soon as possible," Zhang said. People who answered the phone at Jining's city government and the epidemic-control centre refused to comment or said they weren't authorised to release information to media.The World Health Organisation (WHO) has not directly criticised the slaughters, but WHO experts have said they underscore a lack of coordination and other problems within China's health-care system. The killings have also prompted a slew of impassioned postings in online forums."Tens of thousands of people die in traffic accidents each year, but we don't ban cars. Dogs are simply easy to persecute," said one unsigned posting on Xinhua's electronic bulletin board."People opposed to killing dogs ought to think how they'd feel if they or a relative was infected with rabies. Are people's or dogs' lives more important?" said another, also unsigned. -- Sapa-AP ____________________________________________________________________ I am quite sure we all have something to say about this disgusting act of brutality!!! Please let your local Chinese High Commission here what you have to say... SWITCHBOARD 012 431 6500 FAX. 012 342 4154 PRESS OFFICER TEL 012 431 6525 FAX. 012 342 3950 EMAIL reception@chinese-embassy.org.za and sign this petition ... [Posted by: Davina at 12:44 pm]
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 Every animal deserves love, protection and our voice.
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