Chinesepod - It's a dog's life for man's best friend

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Opinion / Liu Shinan

It's a dog's life for man's best friend

By Liu Shinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-07-25 07:11

Two dog-related stories appeared online on Monday, showing the two
extremes of people's love and hate for the animal.

A university professor in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, spent 100,000 yuan
($13,000) to hold a funeral for his dead pet dog on Sunday. A week
earlier, six men bludgeoned a dog to death before its owner's very eyes
in a street in Lanzhou, Gansu Province.

Though his unconventional behavior may cause repulsion given the fact
that a fair large part of the Chinese population is still poverty
stricken and 100,000 yuan would be enough to put dozens of rural children
through school, the professor can't be blamed for he did nothing to harm
anyone.

The cold-blooded killing of a dog by six men wielding heavy cudgels,
however, is something else.

In their defense, the men said they did not slay the canine without good
reason. One of them said the dog, a large collie, had scared his friend's
child and its owner had bullied the child's parents during the subsequent
quarrel. He said he and the five other friends of the child's parent had
to kill the dog because they couldn't count on the local authorities to
stop it being a threat to children, even though they had reported it to
the police.

I definitely disagree with the brutal slaughter of the dog but I would be
speechless if the man asked me this question: "What else do you think we
can do for justice to be done?"

I certainly would not say something like, "leave the matter to the
government for a proper treatment", as is often suggested by media
commentators. I know "proper treatment" in most cases would mean simply
letting the matter drop after a suitably protracted delay. The
authorities have much weightier things to attend to than trivial brawls
between neighbors.

However, disputes between dog lovers and their neighbors who do not raise
pets are not trivial.

Last week, a pet wolfhound bit off the left half of a 4-year-old girl's
face in Anshan, a city in Liaoning Province.

On August 31 last year, a nine-year-old boy was eaten alive by two
wolfhounds raised by a neighbor in Lishi county, Shanxi Province.

Injuries caused by large dogs are not rare: Such reports never cease.

Complaints about dogs have been on the increase, covering everything from
their nighttime barking, fouling of pavements, the threat to children and
spread of disease.

Most places have laws and rules on the raising of dogs that are generally
exhaustive enough to cover all eventualities. But the execution of them
is not always as it should be. Violation of the laws and rules is visible
everywhere but there seems to be little punishment.

For example, I have never seen anyone who failed to clean up after their
pet being punished. Of course, I might have missed the occasions when
someone did, but the droppings widely seen in public greenbelts suggest
most people are getting away with it.

Another example of weak governance in this regard: Beijing has about 1
million pet dogs but only 500,000 are officially registered with the
police.

Pet lovers have the rights to raise dogs. But when their pets' actions
impinge on the interests of other people, they must be held accountable
and compensate those who are hurt in any way.

Most people do not raise dogs. In Beijing, for example, just one in five
households has a pet dog.

To the authorities: Please seriously address the problem of pet-related
neighborhood conflicts. Don't leave people's pets to the mercy of angry
victims of dangerous dogs.

Email: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/25/2007 page10)

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