Welfare Groups Protest Massive Dog Cull in China

by Kimberly Coleman

Animal welfare groups are protesting the mass slaughter of dogs by the Health Ministry of China’s Guangdong government, as a rabies prevention strategy.

Guangdong has ordered all dogs in areas with reported rabies cases to be killed outright, without testing them first for rabies. They have also banned importing dogs for a year.

Guangdong released figures stating 18 percent of dogs were infected with rabies. According to Animal Rescue Association President, Wu Tianyu, however, the figures cited by the Health Ministry were from a study conducted in 1990.

Out of the seventy million people in Guangdong, only seventy-four people were infected with rabies.

"It just does not justify the killing of so many dogs," stated Ms. Wu. The massive killing of dogs has spread from Guangdong into other cities in China including Tianjin, Wuhan, Nanjing, Suzhou and Xian.

There were thirty-two rabies cases in Maoming which resulted in killing over six thousand dogs. Lianjiang had eight people infected, and killed over fifty-two thousand dogs.

A report released in Xinhua stated the increase of rabies was due to the number of dogs being kept as pets in urban and rural areas.

Rabies cases are reported to have risen over 20 percent every year. Rabies is said to have killed more people than the recent SARS epidemic.

Animal rights activists attribute the increase in rabies to substandard vaccinations. High license fees have forced citizens to keep dogs illegally, which limits the government from effectively monitoring and enforcing vaccination programs.

© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.