Officials in a northern Chinese city have clubbed 37,500 dogs to death since May to contain an outbreak of rabies, the local government said Wednesday, amid an online outcry over animal cruelty.
Killing the dogs is necessary to rein in the epidemic, which has killed 13 people so far this year in the city of Hanzhong, said an official who works for the local agriculture department.
"We've had 6,600 people bitten or scratched by dogs," said the official, who gave only his surname Shi.
"Telling people that unattended dogs will be killed is an effective way to contain the epidemic because it encourages dog owners to keep their pets at home," he said.
However, the Hanzhong campaign has triggered an uproar on the Internet, especially after graphic photos of the killings were posted online.
Phone calls criticising the slaughter jammed the city government's public telephone line, and some people have started an online bid to organise a transfer of the Hanzhong dogs to other cities, the Beijing News said last week.
Slaughtering animals at times of epidemic outbreaks is not rare in China.
A county in the southwestern province of Yunnan in 2006 decided to kill 50,000 dogs in five days after three people died from dog bites.
In 2007, at least 175,000 pigs were slaughtered across the country to stem the spread of the blue-ear pig disease.
Animal welfare is not traditionally highly valued in Chinese culture, but improvements in the standard of living have led many, especially in the urban middle classes, to give it a higher priority.
The country is currently drafting its first law to protect animals from abuse, which is expected to put an end to the inhumane treatment of animals, earlier Chinese media reports said.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
