WTF China kills 50,000 dogs (slaughtered while out on walks with owners)

[Proud2BAmurkin]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14139027/

SHANGHAI, China - China slaughtered 50,000 dogs in a government-ordered crackdown after three people died of rabies, sparking unusually pointed criticism in state media Tuesday and an outcry from animal rights activists.

Dogs being walked were seized from their owners and beaten to death on the spot, the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported. Led by the county police chief, killing teams entered villages at night creating noise to get dogs barking, then beat the animals to death, the reports said.

Owners were offered 63 cents per animal to kill their own dogs before the teams were sent in, they said.

[Kagemusha]

1. Dude. Rabies is no joke.

No joke at all.

[Warpy]

4. Not in a desperately poor country

where people bitten by animals can't afford a series of prophylactic rabies immunizations, nor can they afford to immunize their pets.

Yes, this is WAY over the top, and only feral dogs should have been put down, but people are terrified.

There have been only two cases I know of that people have survived rabies. Rabies is still statistically 100% fatal, and it's a hard way to go.

[AusGail]

2. I love all creatures great and small

Unfortunately I cant say the same for the Chinese government and a lot of Chinese people who treat animals in such horrible ways. You dont have to be a Rhodes Scholar to know that animals feel pain.

[napi21]

3. Don't they have rabies vaccine in China?

I really don't mean this to be a smart ass. I've been having my animals vaccinated for rabies for so long, I can't even remember a time when you didn't just do that! I'm 62 and ahve had dogs & cats for almost that long!

Things are very strange regarding animals in China.

I remember telling my son who spent 16 years in the Navy and now works a civilian job in Scily, how weird I thought it was that people in China eat monkey. He said, he those people eat anything that is alive! I was under the impression that the Chinese people didn't have dogs as pets.

This is a strange and questionable story.

[wickerwoman]

13. Yes. It costs more than 500RMB per animal per year.

The average monthly salary for a middle-class white collar worker is about 2000RMB a month so that's the equivalent of Americans having to pay approximately $600 a year to keep each pet vaccinated. And the government pretty much never checks up on it so how many people would pay that much on the off chance that their indoor pet will eat an infected bat?

In the Southern provinces (Yunnan, Guangdong, etc.) they eat pretty much everything. When you think about it, it makes more sense to eat all animals than to spare the cute ones especially if you've experienced generations of famine. Many urban middle class Chinese people keep dogs as pets (my neighbors have a super yappy Pomeranian) but the general attitude remains that animals are put on earth to serve people's needs.

I don't doubt the story for a second. 300 people died of rabies in Guangdong last year. There are enormous colonies of feral cats and dogs all over China. I don't think they should have killed the licensed dogs (you're required to pay an extortionate amount to the local government to get a license to own a dog in the first place) and definitely not the ones who had been vaccinated. But in the U.S. feral colonies of animals are sometimes put to sleep when they've gotten out of control. In China they don't have the resources to round up all the animals safely and put them to sleep humanely. It pisses me off that these animals had to suffer and I think it was a massive overreaction, but the alternative was to let rabid feral dogs keep killing 4 year old girls.

[napi21]

14. Why does the rabies vaccine ccost so much? Is it a Gov't control thing?

I realize I don't understand the Chinese culture, but to make a vaccine unavailable to mosst people seems very self defeating to me.

[wickerwoman]

16. I think it's because it's imported.

They don't make the vaccine here and most people don't vaccinate their pets, so it's hard to come by. Kind of a self-perpetuating circle.

[blogslut]

5. Did they have to beat them to death?

I mean come on.

[Phredicles]

6. I'm sure they would have preferred

to run over them with tanks, but there just wasn't time.

[lies and propaganda]

7. oh snap!

great response. welcome to DU

[killbotfactory]

8. Typical subtlety China is known for

yeesh

[SammyBlue]

9. Can we check for rabies in the government in the Chinese Captial

They are more dangerous and any rabid animal!

[JohnLocke]

10. More barbarianism from the PRC government (nt).

[RDU Socialist]

11. wow that's almost as many people that hideous government executes

in one year.

who the fuck is surprised by this brutality, ever since Mao first took power this shit has been par for the course.

[cigsandcoffee]

12. What a repulsive way to handle a problem.

Monsters.

[dusty64]

15. This is disgusting

and unfortunately what is supported (among other things) everytime one shops at walmart and other places. China owns this country thanks to our treasonous government and they are our future, unless ............

[Virginia Dare]

17. People have no rights in China....

you don't even have the right to own a dog. That is a fact. Meanwhile, we support these ruthless tyrants and welcome them as free trade partners.

By the way, has anyone heard how the artificial sun experiment went in China this week. The rulers of China will stop at nothing until they control the world. Bet on it.

[truebrit71]

18. Somebody comes at my dog with a stick is gonna wind up having it inserted

...in several orifices.....repeatedly....