Dog Owners Fight Back

For those of us following the news about dogs in China, here’s an update. According to a report from The Shanghaiist entitled “Stay the #%$! away from our dog,” it looks like there’s at least one more dog massacre being planned.

Shanghaiist was horrified to find another story in the unlinkable South China Morning Post (SCMP) about another planned mass-slaughter of dogs in another part of China:

Officials from Jining city in central Shandong province on Thursday said they would kill all dogs within five kilometres of villages where rabies was found, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The measures come in response to the deaths of 16 people in the city from rabies in the past eight months.

It gave no estimate of how many animals would be killed but said the city had a total population of about 500,000 dogs.

The Shanghaiist article sends readers to the China View site for the information on how the rabies epidemic is spreading and how its being dealt with. Here is that article.

Sixteen die of rabies after dog attacks in E. China city

JINAN, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) — Sixteen people have died of rabies over the past eight months after a rash of dog attacks in Jining City, east China’s Shandong Province, the local government said Thursday.

The disease was reported at 16 villages across the municipality, where more than 500,000 dogs live as pets or guard dogs.

The local epidemic prevention authority has announced it will kill dogs within five kilometers of each affected village.

Dogs in other parts will receive vaccinations against the disease.

Epidemic prevention officials said the local government had received constant reports this year of attacks by “mad dogs”, and the number of rabies-infected patients had increased sharply.

They warned rabid dogs could infect people by biting and scratching.

The latent period of the disease ranges from a few days to 20 years, and there was no effective treatment, they said.

Patients rarely survived once the disease developed, but if they received the anti-rabies bacterin in time, the likelihood of developing the disease would drop to 10 percent, the official added.

On Sunday, Mouding County in southwest China’s Yunnan Province reported the deaths of three people from rabies. They died within ten days though they were received treatment immediately after they were bitten.

Many dogs in the county have been killed to prevent the disease spreading.

A dog lover in China has been giving Dogsters more information on the previous posting about China and the massacre of 50,000 dogs. Marriotte is appalled by his countrymen’s actions and has asked for help educating his fellow Chinese Dog lovers about dog care and responsible dog ownership. He has made the point that is the way to prevent future tragedies such as what is happening now. If you want to help make a difference in a country that is just learning to appreciate dogs in the ways they should be loved and appreciated, I urge you to join with Marriotte and other dedicated Dogsters to find ways to help the Chinese, dogs and humans!

How can you help? Marriotte is willing to join with Dogsters outside of China to find ways to help dogs and dog lovers in his country. Is there one or more Dogsters willing to spearhead this effort by starting a group on Dogster where ideas and suggestions can be shared? If so, bark in! You could be the one Dogster who starts it all and helps to save hundreds of thousands of Chinese dogs!