Stay the #%$! away from our dog

Shanghaiist was horrified to find another story in the unlinkable South China Morning Post 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.

Shanghaiist reluctantly sought out the original Xinhua story referenced in the SCMP version above, which can be found here. This news comes on the heels of the brutal slaughter of 50,000 dogs in Yunnan last week:

Police and public health officials in southern China have clubbed, hanged or electrocuted almost 50,000 dogs in a week-long crackdown on rabies, local media reported yesterday.

Squads in Mouding, Yunnan province, grabbed pets from their owners while they were out for walks and beat them to death on the spot, the Shanghai Daily reported.

Dog owners were offered a five yuan (40p) reward for killing their animals. Those who attempted to hide their pets indoors were flushed out by late-night squads who made loud noises outside to make the dogs bark.

Just the thought of anyone even trying to take our dog away from us for any reason makes Shanghaiist alternately sick and completely livid. While we acknowledge the serious public health threat posed by rabies in stray dogs, or dogs whose owners are incapable of or unwilling to take responsibility, we can't help but wonder how many of those 50,000 were actually licensed dogs, vaccinated against rabies. It's one thing to protect public health interests ... but thoughtless, needless slaughter of beloved, responsibly kept pets?

Shanghaiist will say it again: Stay away from our dog. We mean it.