Secret to solving Shanghai's 'dog problem': More dogs
Several Chinese reports have come out about Shanghai's new policy for dealing with its supposed "dog problem": using retired military dogs to police the other dogs. If you have no idea what the hell that means, join the club. It is some idea that came out of various political meetings in Shanghai, where officials discussed the dog issue. It seems that there are still lots of unregistered dogs, enough to outnumber the number of registered dogs. The registration numbers are increasing, up 20% from last year, for a total of 130,000.
Still, there are problems—people get attacked, step in shit, gratuitously humped, prevented from sleeping comfortably, etc. But when dealing with dogs, the Shanghai government doesn't want to make the same PR (not to mention ethical) mistakes that Beijing or worse yet, Mouding county, made in dealing with their respective perceived dog problems. That's why the slogan here is “文明管犬” (wenming guan quan or "manage dogs in a civilized way"). They are going hike up the fines, set up more dog behavior schools, and work to make sure that all dog owners know and understand the rules.
Still, we don't get exactly how this dog-on-dog action is going to work. What was even more maddening was that one Chinese report started off with a joke about the concept of dogs policing other dogs—but never said, specifically, how that happens. Police/military dogs are also scary in their own way—we would rather get bitten by the little rat-like dogs that some people here like than some retired army dog that goes haywire.