(CN) Fw: Agence France-Press 12/10/03: Beijing bans raising of dangerous pooches

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Agence France-Presse Sunday, 12-Oct-2003 6:20AM

 

Beijing bans raising of " dangerous " pooches

by Cindy Sui, Agence France-Presse

 

BEIJING, Oct 12 (AFP) - They sleep together, eat together and take walks

together, but Li Yang and his beloved flatmate " Lai Fu, " or " Bringing

Happiness " will soon be considered illegal cohabitants.

 

Lai Fu, a two-month-old Dalmatian, falls under a list of 41 types of

pooches considered by the Beijing government to be unsuitable as

household pets in the Chinese capital's urban areas.

 

Officials believe the dogs are fierce in nature or too big.

 

Beginning October 15, a new regulation in Beijing goes into effect which

bans the raising of Dalmatians, German Shepherds, terriers, collies, old

English sheepdogs and a variety of other mostly large breeds.

 

" It's really unfair, " said Li, a 26-year-old bachelor. " These types of

dogs are very gentle. They're not dangerous at all. They're not even

that big. "

 

Beijing, like other major Chinese cities, is grappling with what to do

with increasing dog ownership.

 

Few people used to own dogs. But in the past few years, a growing number

of people laid-off or put on early retirement have taken to raising them

for companionship.

 

Young people, especially an expanding class of yuppies, also now prefer

to see canines romping about at home than as stew on the dinner table,

unlike previous generations.

 

Beijing and other cities have imposed exorbitant fees -- equivalent to

several months' salary -- to discourage people from owning dogs, but

that forced many people to go underground, illegally raising pets they

kept mostly indoors and snuck out for walks at night.

 

To encourage pet owners to come clean and vaccinate their dogs against

rabies, Beijing's new regulation reduces dog registration fees from

5,000 yuan (600 dollars) to 1,000 yuan (120 dollars). On top of this,

annual fees will fall from 2,000 yuan to a more affordable 500 yuan.

 

But along with lowered fees, the government has for the first time

specified a list of dogs that cannot be raised, except in rural areas.

 

The dogs do not meet an already existing rule that restrict people from

owning pets taller than 35 centimeters (14 inches) -- which meant dog

lovers had few choices and most ended up raising small dogs like the

Pekinese.

 

An official in Beijing Public Security Bureau's " Restricting Raising

Office, which deals with pets, said the dogs could not be raised within

the Fourth Ring Road -- the outermost highway that circles central

Beijing.

 

" These dogs have a violent nature, " said the official who refused to

give his name and who argued movies such as the " 101 Dalmatians "

mislead the public. " They're all very nice when you see them in the

movies. But in China such dogs receive no training at all. They are not

the same. "

 

The new rules also restrict each family from having more than one dog,

similar to the country's one-child-per-family population control policy.

 

The rules appear to be a response to the many people who complain about

dogs.

 

Dog haters argued with dog lovers in heated debates on the Internet

after learning of the new regulations.

 

" The city should ban dogs from being raised altogether, " one person

wrote in an Internet chatroom. " China's population is huge. The density

is high. The environment is poor. Even people don't have enough space.

How can there be space for dogs? "

 

Dog lovers blasted the regulations.

 

" The guidelines show the government still see dogs as a threat and dog

ownership as something that should be restricted, not managed, " said

Nie Yue, who owns two Pomeranians and would be violating the one-dog

per family policy.

 

To Nie, the issue has everything to do with what kind of society China

wants to be.

 

" How a society improves is reflected by how tolerant people are of each

other and how tolerant the government is of its citizens, " Nie said.

 

He decried the fact there was no mention in the regulations about dogs

and dog owners' rights.

 

" People poison dogs and get away with it. People have kicked my dog and

there was no legal recourse I could pursue. "

 

Seeing dogs as pets is still a new concept in Chinese society. Animals

were seen as tools. Dogs were for guarding the house. Cats were for

catching mice.

 

The Chinese government has never looked kindly on the animal considered

man's best friend in Western countries.

 

Periodically throughout the past 50 plus years of communist rule, the

government has carried out dog elimination campaigns to avoid rabies

infections, forcing families to kill their pets.

 

Lin Degui, head of the state-run China Agricultural University's

veterinary hospital, argued that the rules show changing government

attitudes towards dogs.

 

" In Beijing, officials no longer think raising dogs is bad. They have

lowered the fees. This is a big change, " said Lin, who believes some of

the dogs on the list are miscategorized, but that restrictions are

necessary.

 

" In Western countries, people have their own house and backyard, but

most people in Chinese cities live in apartment buildings and dogs can

get in the way of others, " Lin said.

 

For Li Yang and " Bringing Happiness, " the rules could spell the end of

a strong bond.

 

Li said he has considered raising Lai Fu against the law, but thinks

it best to find a friend living in the city outskirts to take him.

 

" I feel terrible thinking about what I'm going to do. I don't want to

give him away, " Li said.

 

" He's very human-like. He notices every movement I make, " Li said of

his Dalmatian. " He understands me. "