Chinese City Relents on Mass Dog Kill
Fierce protests force Jiangmen officials to back off
Jiangmen City in southern China
A Chinese city that was planning to ban pet dogs has scrapped the idea after facing strong protests from animal lovers.
Authorities in Jiangmen city, in South China’s Guangdong province, had ordered all dogs in the three districts of the city to be removed or destroyed by August 26.
The official “Notice on Strengthening the Management of Dogs” which stated that residents must re-home their dogs between August 10 and 25 or relinquish them to be killed.
A policeman told Chinadaily.com: “Our aim is not to kill all the dogs in the city’s urban areas, but we hope to create a better environment for the city by banning the keeping of dogs.”
The ban would have affected 30,000 dogs. Some people would have been granted exemptions with licenses, but apparently only if they could prove that the dog was needed to defend a warehouse or other business property.
But the announcement sparked a wave of fierce protest, and the plan has been abandoned.
In the new plan, people will be able to keep their pets but are prohibited from taking them to parks, schools, kindergartens, shopping malls and other public places.
People with dogs also feared how their dogs would be killed. In the past, Chinese officials have routinely beaten dogs to death with clubs during hygiene drives, often driven by fears of rabies.