50,000 Dogs killed in one Chinese country alone... [Archive]

Don Corleone

08-02-2006, 21:05

Well, the dog lover in me is certainly outraged (having 3 mutts myself). But I saw this article, and one thing sort of explains it all.... despite the fact that over 70% of rural Chinese households own at least one dog, less than 1% of all dog-owners vaccinate their dogs against rabies infection. 3 kids died from it this year, which was what prompted the provincial government to take action.

Don't get me wrong, the way they handled it was barbaric. But they did have to do something... They estimated there were over 2000 infected dogs out and about.

drone

08-02-2006, 21:12

Maybe they heard about this:

Dog goes on rampage and kills hundreds of bears (http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/02/britain.elvisbear.ap/index.html)

I wonder if they asked the owners if they had vaccination records before killing the dogs?

Kralizec

08-02-2006, 21:13

:no:
Sickening.

Rabies is a dangerous disease though, so they had to do something. Still, draconian and unnecessarily cruel in its execution.

Only 3% vaccinated? It was a disaster waiting to happen. This would never have happened in a sensible country where vaccinations are mandatory. Prevention is better then cure, but that doesn't seem like a very Chinese approach.

DemonArchangel

08-02-2006, 21:25

Given the number of strays that we euthanize per year in American animal shelters, I REALLY WOULDN'T BE TALKING DAVE.

Pot, meet Kettle.

Don Corleone

08-02-2006, 21:30

There's a world of difference between putting a dog out with carbon monoxide and yanking it's leash out of it's owners hands and beating it to death with a broomstick right there in front of him, DA.

Besides, as with most things in China, read between the lines:

The official newspaper Legal Daily blasted the killings as an “extraordinarily crude, cold-blooded and lazy way for the government to deal with epidemic disease.”

“Wiping out the dogs shows these government officials didn’t do their jobs right in protecting people from rabies in the first place,” the newspaper, published by the central government’s Politics and Law Committee, said in an editorial in its online edition.

In an editorial, the official Xinhua News Agency said the killings wouldn’t have been necessary if the local government had been more attentive, but called the slaughter “the only way out of a bad situation.”

“If they’d discovered this earlier, they could have vaccinated the dogs and ... controlled the outbreak,” the editorial said.

It sounds like a certain provincial governor should start making plans to retire to a nice one-room out in the country somewhere. You don't show up as the subject of a negative editorial in the state run newspaper unless you've screwed up royally (i.e. he had been told to get the vaccination rates up or something along those lines). They don't toss party bosses under the bus for a minor transgression... he really screwed the pooch on this one (in more ways than one).

drone

08-02-2006, 21:36

Given the number of strays that we euthanize per year in American animal shelters, I REALLY WOULDN'T BE TALKING DAVE.
It's the implementation of the cull that Dave doesn't agree with, and I can't say I disagree. At least here in the States they get gassed or a drip. Although, I'm not sure what method PETA uses...

Devastatin Dave

08-02-2006, 22:22

Given the number of strays that we euthanize per year in American animal shelters, I REALLY WOULDN'T BE TALKING DAVE.

Pot, meet Kettle.
We don't club them to death Mr Einstein, in front of their owners no less. What's the Chinese word for "Duuuuh" Demon? :wall:

Papewaio

08-02-2006, 23:28

There is a humane way to deal with a problem and an inhumane way.

The issue is that they did it in an inhumane way, which would also sum up a lot of problems with the Chinese government as a whole... maybe the Olympic commitee should make a few noises about China now appearing to be an unsuitable venue due to this and other issues.

I wouldn't mind seeing a list of western companies with manufacturers in that county and seeing them publically contacted on their position on the local governments inhumane treatment of animals. Get the companies to look into changing counties to a more humane one and this will get the local governments attention quick smart... otherwise get those same companies on a inhumane watchlist (a bit like the tuna with/without dolphin).

Leet Eriksson

08-02-2006, 23:42

good luck buying all that gas, to gas the dogs ~;p

its much more convenient to use cheaper methods to kill the dogs, and i think it was urgent so they had to improvise.

Pannonian

08-02-2006, 23:46

Bah, dat's nuffink. We Brits burned a million or so cows a few years ago.

Geoffrey S

08-02-2006, 23:48

It sounds like a certain provincial governor should start making plans to retire to a nice one-room out in the country somewhere. You don't show up as the subject of a negative editorial in the state run newspaper unless you've screwed up royally (i.e. he had been told to get the vaccination rates up or something along those lines). They don't toss party bosses under the bus for a minor transgression... he really screwed the pooch on this one (in more ways than one).
Presumably someone tried to make themselves richer by taking the cheapest way out. Didn't go down to well upstairs though, thank goodness.

Crazed Rabbit

08-03-2006, 00:41

Although, I'm not sure what method PETA uses...

I don't know if they killed them before they tossed the bodies in dumpsters, but probably some primitive form of killing if they did do so.

It seems, at least, the official Chinese line is not happy with this.

Crazed Rabbit

Navaros

08-03-2006, 02:56

China murders dogs en masse, North America murders dogs en masse.

Both are just as evil and disgusting, and both should be illegal, and the murderers flogged and incarcerated for a very long time.

Reverend Joe

08-03-2006, 03:40

China murders dogs en masse, North America murders dogs en masse.

Both are just as evil and disgusting, and both should be illegal, and the murderers flogged and incarcerated for a very long time.
You do realise that those particular dogs are mostly killed because they are more disease-ridden than rats... right?

You wanna save the rats too?

Avicenna

08-03-2006, 03:54

...

Like everyone's said, America kills dogs as well. The difference is, China's method doesn't contribute to global warming in the form of the greenhouse gas Carbon Monoxide.

Anyway, if the owners refuse to hand the dog over, it's just selfish and risks the infection of humans with rabies.

Somebody Else

08-03-2006, 04:26

China's a big country.

Would anyone care if the title was '50 dogs killed in one Chinese county alone'?

Devastatin Dave

08-03-2006, 04:34

China's a big country.

Would anyone care if the title was '50 dogs killed in one Chinese county alone'?
Typo, meant to say "county" as the article title posted.:2thumbsup:

Perplexed

08-03-2006, 08:09

Woah, that's around 16,700 dogs killed for every human death (assuming the 50,000 pooches were killed as a result of the 3 humans dying of rabies). Seems extreme.

I'm no veterinarian, but I'd be inclined to proscribe vaccination for a rabid dog over 2-by-4.

R'as al Ghul

08-03-2006, 09:33

That's sickening indeed. :furious3:

They need to get their health system going or start to build one.
Remember how it took them years to acknowledge that AIDS exists.
We can be lucky that they haven't dealt with AIDS the same way they do with rabies. [/cynicism]

We get those kind of messages almost on a daily basis and in 2008 we're all going to be friends and grouphug each other at the Olympics? Right. :no:

Tribesman

08-03-2006, 10:43

China murders dogs en masse, North America murders dogs en masse.

Both are just as evil and disgusting, and both should be illegal, and the murderers flogged and incarcerated for a very long time.

Dogs Navaros , 4 legs and paws !!!!!!!!dirty animals :no:
They should not even be touched uness you are going to follow the correct purification proceedures afterwards right ?
Or is that one of the bits of the "truth" that you follow literally that you don't follow literally .
Since you seem to have a problem with even vetinarians "humanely" killing animals , could you elaborate on the "correct" way to kill an animal ?

Major Robert Dump

08-03-2006, 12:21

I heard the real reason they did it was because China King Taekout LLC in the states was running low on spicy pork and mongolian beef tips. People have to eat, hippies!

For real, though, this is funny stuff. "I declare a jihad on dogs!" = all dogs pwnt=can't do anything to thbe 4 foot tall chinese guy whacking your chihuahah becuase he R teh imperial police.

Major Robert Dump

08-03-2006, 12:31

Oh wait I just saw that the Chinee police offered 63 cents to the owner per dog killed. Nevermind, all of this is perfectly okay

Reenk Roink

08-03-2006, 13:53

Dogs Navaros , 4 legs and paws !!!!!!!!dirty animals :no:
They should not even be touched uness you are going to follow the correct purification proceedures afterwards right ?
Or is that one of the bits of the "truth" that you follow literally that you don't follow literally .

Well, even though the Old Testament may classify dogs and other animals as unclean, I certainly don't think it condones the mass killing of them (except in cases of bestiality)...

Oh wait I just saw that the Chinee police offered 63 cents to the owner per dog killed. Nevermind, all of this is perfectly okay

Hey, 63 cents is a lot more in China...

Devastatin Dave

08-03-2006, 14:14

...

Like everyone's said, America kills dogs as well. The difference is, China's method doesn't contribute to global warming in the form of the greenhouse gas Carbon Monoxide.

Uhh, yup China is a true leader when it comes to enviromental issues. :dizzy2:
Man my eyes hurt from them rolling back so hard that I could have got whiplash. Demon never gave me my Chinese translation for "Duuuuh", think you could find it for me?

English assassin

08-03-2006, 14:33

Wake me up when there's a world Dog shortage....

I like dogs as much as the next man (unless the next man is a Korean restaurant critic,) and cruelty to animals is a bad thing, but dogs, shmogs.

Devastatin Dave

08-03-2006, 14:39

Wake me up when there's a world Dog shortage....

I like dogs as much as the next man (unless the next man is a Korean restaurant critic,) and cruelty to animals is a bad thing, but dogs, shmogs.
EA, they beat them to death with clubs, at times, in front of the owners.

Oaty

08-03-2006, 15:25

Well I remember reading an article a while back about Chinas anti-dog policy. Of course it was quite a while ago and quite less extreme, but still extreme and if the rules were'nt followed to the word the owners dog got confiscated. This was for the city of Shanghai. If I'm correct it is someone very high up in the office, so either this guy was also anti-dog or was testing the olfactory senses or both.

ICantSpellDawg

08-03-2006, 15:41

think about if this had happened to rats or spiders. there would be way less furore.

i love dogs, but i think it is funny how people are now advertising a boycott of chinese products because of their alternative form of pest destruction.

English assassin

08-03-2006, 15:43

EA, they beat them to death with clubs, at times, in front of the owners.

Well, yeah, Ok, I care. I just care about other things more. Its the monkeysphere, you know. My bad.

Louis VI the Fat

08-03-2006, 20:21

Devastatin Dave

08-03-2006, 20:45

Good post Louis, I hope you don't get in trouble or hunted down for your excellent post.:2thumbsup:

Don Corleone

08-03-2006, 21:06

Well, again, based on the fact that the provincial governor found himself in a starring role of a "What not to do" editorial in a state-run newspaper gives me hope that the party at large knows better. They used some pretty harsh language...crude, cold-blooded and lazy is very direct, even for us. This by the party, referring to one of it's provincial governors.

Pannonian

08-03-2006, 21:33

I do care about the dogs, but I am more shocked by the way the Chinese government treats its subjects. They only have one way of dealing with problems: through brutal, repressive, draconic militaristic means.

Need an agricultural reform? Just take a great leap forward, and bugger 30 million deaths.

Want to strengthen your power base a bit? Have yourself a nice cultural revolution, purge the opposition, destroy a few thousand Tibetan holy places, club all 'counter-revolutionary imperialists' to death.

Student protests? Send in the tanks and open fire.

Got a possible dog problem? Simple, send in the military to snatch puppies from the hands of crying children and let them beat them to death before their very eyes.

What's that? America kills dogs too? Which thus means there is no difference whatsoever?
Oops, OMG, sorry. How could I not see that obvious thruth? I apologize to the proletariat for my anti-party rant above and confess to being a counter-revolutionary bourgeois enemy of the state. I beg you, your honour, please send me to a re-education camp where I may come to see the error of my ways and learn to appreciate the glory of the revolution.
Such are the ways of a traditionally totalitarian country, where freedom only existed when the authorities were too pre-occupied to bother about ordinary people. At least the Dengist regime is now trying to make laissez-faire official policy, although the rural Chinese are still too backward to make this work.

As for Tibet: look at the CCP as traditional nationalists and it makes sense. The old Nationalists (KMT) were equally harsh towards anything that could fragment China. The English were just as bad on a lesser scale in Ireland, as were the French in Algeria. Let's just be thankful they're no longer Maoists.

Lemur

08-04-2006, 16:59

Since the first slaughter worked so well, they're planning on doing it again ... (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5244304.stm)

Second Chinese dog cull planned

A second Chinese local government has launched a controversial mass cull of dogs in a bid to tackle rabies.

Officials in Jining, in eastern Shandong province, said 16 people had died of the disease this year.

They said they would kill all dogs within five km of 16 villages where rabies had been found, suggesting 500,000 dogs were under threat.

The move comes days after 50,000 dogs were killed in south-western China in response to a rabies outbreak.

'Cold-blooded' culls

The culls have sparked outrage from animal rights groups.

One group, People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), called for a boycott of Chinese products.

Correspondents say China has a poor record of animal protection and there are no laws to prevent cruelty to pets.

The previous cull, in Mouding county in Yunnan, was prompted by the deaths of three people from rabies, including a four-year-old girl.

In a five-day cull, dogs were clubbed to death in the street as their owners watched. Other dog owners took matters into their own hands, poisoning or electrocuting their pets.

Rabies is an encephalitis brain disease caused by rabies virus. It is a fatal condition but it is preventable by vaccination.

Moros

08-04-2006, 20:37

Every country kills millions of animals, sometimes brutaly sometimes not so brutally. In every country millions of animals are being hurt. THink about those battery hens. But when it's dogs or horses, it's a drama. WHen it's chinken, pigs, cows,... it's not. (now I'm not accusing anyone here of thinking that way, but you can't deny that alot do.)

ChewieTobbacca

08-04-2006, 22:32

I do care about the dogs, but I am more shocked by the way the Chinese government treats its subjects. They only have one way of dealing with problems: through brutal, repressive, draconic militaristic means.

Need an agricultural reform? Just take a great leap forward, and bugger 30 million deaths.

Want to strengthen your power base a bit? Have yourself a nice cultural revolution, purge the opposition, destroy a few thousand Tibetan holy places, club all 'counter-revolutionary imperialists' to death.

Student protests? Send in the tanks and open fire.

Got a possible dog problem? Simple, send in the military to snatch puppies from the hands of crying children and let them beat them to death before their very eyes.

China has learned greatly in the last 15-20 years since Tianamen. A lot of their brutal tactics and so on are no longer employed - yeah, in some ways, things are more brutal than Westerners can imagine, but it has improved greatly. When you have so many foreigners entering the country, and are now one of the largest markets around, it's hard to hide such things.

Yeah, killing those dogs in that way seems brutal, but it's also really practical - it cures the rabies problem, it's cheaper and more efficient than gassing dogs, and honestly animals are killed every year for food and for other reasons and it's really not that big of a deal as i see it.

Somebody Else

08-05-2006, 06:33

Another thing. Culturally, dogs generally aren't pets here. They're more vermin than anything else, especially so out in the country. In cities, where there's more western influence, designer puppies are starting to be occur amongst some of the local wannabee women. They get chucked as soon as they get too big/smelly. Good news for dog-loving westerners though, means there's plenty to rescue.