Some in China critical of dogs’ slaughter to fight rabies

SHANGHAI, China – For the second time in days, Chinese authorities have ordered a mass slaughter of dogs to curb a rabies outbreak, drawing criticism from animal lovers but also support from many who say it’s the only way to contain a disease that kills more than 2,000 Chinese a year.

Officials in the eastern city of Jining plan to kill all dogs within three miles of areas where rabies has been found, the official Xinhua News Agency said Friday.

The measure came in response to the deaths of 16 people from rabies in Jining in the last eight months, Xinhua said. It didn’t say when the slaughter would begin or how the animals would be killed. It said the city had about 500,000 dogs.

Rabies cases are on the rise in China, with 2,651 reported deaths from the disease in 2004. Only 3 percent of the country’s dogs are vaccinated against rabies.

Last week, a county in southwestern Yunnan province killed 50,000 dogs, many of them beaten to death in front of their owners, after three people died of rabies.

The slaughters have outraged animal rights groups, who call them cruel and a sign of government incompetence in dealing with rabies.

“I think this is completely insane,” said Zhang Luping, founder of the Beijing Human and Animal Environmental Education Center.

“What’s more, this really damages our national image and sets a really bad example to show how lazy and inconsiderate those local government officials are,” Zhang said.

The killings in Yunnan prompted unusually pointed criticism in state media, with many commentators saying it signaled how little capacity the local government had to deal with routine health issues.

The killings have prompted a slew of impassioned postings in online forums.

“Tens of thousands of people die in traffic accidents each year, but we don’t ban cars. Dogs are simply easy to persecute,” said one unsigned posting on Xinhua’s electronic bulletin board.

“People opposed to killing dogs ought to think how they’d feel if they or a relative was infected with rabies. Are people’s or dogs’ lives more important?” said another, also unsigned.