SCMP 5/4/05: China-Challenging a throwaway pet culture, Zhang Luping's animal shelter is a rare private solution to a worsening problem

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South China Morning Post Wednesday, May 4, 2005

 

Challenging a throwaway pet culture

Zhang Luping's animal shelter is a rare private solution to a worsening

problem

VIVIAN WU

 

Under a scorching Beijing sun, Zhang Luping gives the 20 staff at her

Changping county animal shelter a dressing down.

 

Two weeks ago, the shelter - already home to about 500 cats and dogs -

took in 20 more animals rescued from illegal hawkers. The sickly

newcomers brought infectious diseases that killed other dogs.

 

" Every corner should be sterilised carefully; all water and food basins

should be changed and sterilised daily, " Ms Zhang commands. " We should

spare no efforts to manage our way through this, our toughest time ever.

The dogs are my children. I cannot afford any new deaths. "

 

Ms Zhang, a 15-year veteran of the PLA's dance unit, founded the Beijing

Human and Animal Environmental Education Centre 10 years ago after

becoming a millionaire through investments in real estate and

restaurants.

 

She founded the organisation after the Beijing municipal government

tightened regulations on dog ownership in urban areas. Each household

is now allowed to have one dog as long as the owner pays 5,000 yuan for

registration and 2,000 yuan each year.

 

The high costs prompted many dog owners to dump their pets and soon more

than 50 arrived at Ms Zhang's house.

 

Local authorities did not share her concern for animals, however, and

she was forced to move frequently to ensure her brood escaped the dog

catcher's net.

 

" The only solution was to move them from place to place. I was really

miserable during that time because every day was spent in a state of

fear of losing them once the administrative office found out or

neighbours reported me, " she says. " But I never considered giving them

up. "

 

After years of lobbying local government, Ms Zhang - unmarried and

without children - finally secured permission and land for a shelter in

Changping county. Several international animal-protection foundations

and pet-food producers came on board as sponsors for the first

non-government shelter for pets on the mainland.

 

The number of homeless pets has rocketed in the past decade.

Conservative estimates by local administrative sources suggest at least

600,000 dogs and cats are homeless in Beijing.

 

Last month, local media, quoting the International Fund for Animal

Welfare (IFAW), reported there were more than a million homeless pets

in the capital, while only 5.78 per cent of residents surveyed recently

said they would take a stray home.

 

The situation was compounded in 2003 when fears that Sars could be

transmitted by animals prompted many owners to dump their animals. In

just one day during the outbreak, she says she rescued 168 dogs and

cats, even though her centre was already full to capacity with 200

animals.

 

The stress has taken its toll.

 

" I have been on the edge of collapse over the past three years,

mentally, physically and financially, though I am still trying to earn

money from my business.

 

" Some ignorant people question why I put so much energy and money into

caring for emotionless animals when there are so many needy people in

poverty-stricken areas who cannot afford to eat.

 

" Of course their plight is important, but that doesn't mean we can

turn a blind eye to suffering animals. "

 

Zhang Li , the IFAW's mainland representative, suggests that without

government support for private shelters the best way to manage strays

on the mainland is through domestic and overseas adoption.

 

" People should be encouraged to adopt homeless dogs and cats as an

alternative to buying one from an illegal pet market, " Mr Zhang says.

 

Animal-welfare advocate Mang Ping says changing attitudes are behind

the greater number of strays and part of the answer lies in

legislation.

 

Traditional Chinese philosophy puts a premium on harmonious relations

between humans and animals, Professor Mang says, and it has only been

in the past 30 years that Chinese society has cared less about animal

welfare.

 

" Many ancient poems and essays dating back thousand of years describe

beautiful rural worlds where humans treat farm animals like brothers

living under the same roof and where people seldom abuse their

companion animals. "

 

But the rush towards material prosperity and the weakening hold of

traditional values after the Cultural Revolution had led people to

view pets as toys.

 

" The absence of a law of protecting animal welfare and curbing

unfettered reproduction of pet animals by commercial breeders has

greatly worsened the situation, " she says.

 

Lawyer Shirley Xu, director of the Beijing Bar Association's animal

protection legislation committee, also sees the need for new laws,

but said it would be difficult to change the status quo.

 

" It'll take at least 10 years to have a good, effective animal

welfare law in China which calls for sensible protection instead of

blind exploitation of animals, " she says.

 

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