Outbreak of Rabies Mars the Comeback Of Canines in China
Killing of 50,000 Rural Dogs
Angers Urban Pet Lovers;
A Puppy as Second Child
MOUDING, China -- Late last month, an 11-year-old boy walked his little black puppy to its execution. The thought of its impending death made him cry. By giving up his pet, the boy was ensuring that it would be hanged -- a more humane fate than having it snatched away and beaten to death in the street, as was happening to other dogs.
At a local well, the boy surrendered his pet, named "Xiao Hei," or "Little Black." A nearby sign pledged $2 for each delivered dog. "I loved the dog like my mother," says the boy, Zhou Hongwei.
Little Black was one of 50,000 dogs slaughtered last month in Mouding, a county in southwestern Yunnan province. Authorities ordered the killings in response to a rabies outbreak that killed several people and sickened 360. Virtually every dog in Mouding has been hanged, beaten to death or otherwise killed.
"Mouding County government tried to prevent the rabies epidemic but later found that it's hard to control it," a deputy party chief of Gonghe village in Mouding said in a telephone interview. "The county government then made the dog-killing decision."
Yet Mouding County officials are discovering that dogs -- for decades shunned as a symbol of capitalist decadence -- are gaining status in the new China. The killings provoked outrage across the nation, spawning more than 15,000 comments on China's most popular Web site, Sina.com. "Puppies didn't do anything wrong," read a typical comment from a Chinese Web surfer.
Even Communist Party-backed newspapers attacked the Mouding move as "extraordinarily crude" and "cold-blooded." With the Internet spreading news of the killings around the world, the animal-rights group PETA called for a boycott of all Chinese products, and tens of thousands of surfers signed an online petition urging the U.S. ambassador to China to recommend widespread rabies vaccinations across that country.
In rural China, where vaccinations aren't always performed on people, let alone dogs, further slaughter lies ahead. Officials from Jining city in central Shandong province say they plan to kill all dogs within about three miles of each village where rabies has been detected, the official Xinhua news agency said Friday, estimating that 500,000 dogs could be at risk.
But in urban China, dogs increasingly are being registered, vaccinated and pampered beyond the imaginings of those raised amid the hardships of the early communist years. When 41-year-old Dong Jianlin was a child, "We didn't even have that word -- 'pet,'" he recalls.
Last Friday, Mr. Dong accompanied his 20-year-old daughter, Li Yunying, to a pet market in the bustling provincial capital, Kunming, where she bought a rust-colored Pomeranian for around $50 and mulled over which color food bowl to buy. "A lot of superstars on television have dogs," says Ms. Li, wearing a shirt with the word "Woof" across the chest in gold and silver sequins. "It's a kind of trend."
"We are getting richer and richer," her father says of the Chinese. "So we have extra money to raise pets."
Yet pets aren't just a product of Chinese affluence. They also serve as surrogate second children in a country where the one-child family is official policy and brothers and sisters are still a rare concept. Chinese people want pets "because we don't have many babies in the house, and because children are lonely, and they have nobody to play with," says Lei Xiaoqin, who runs a pet store. The name of the pet store, Dou Le, derives from the Chinese translation of America's popular dog-food brand, Purina. She decided to open the store after her doctor told her he was able to sell nine puppies at a local market for more than 10,000 yuan, or about $1,200.
Pet popularity is most pronounced in China's richest cities. Beijing alone is home to 500,000 registered pet dogs, according to Fei Yuehai, an official at the Beijing-based China National Kennel Club, but he reckons the total figure is about three times that, given the cost of registration. A pet dog's registration could cost from 600 to 1200 yuan -- $75 to $150, according to China's Ministry of Public Security. After registration, pet owners need to pay 300 to 600 yuan every year to get an annual review.
In Beijing, pet owners who want to spoil their charges can take them to the Jingcheng Tianshi Pet Hospital, one of some 500 pet clinics in the city. For about $15, the hospital offers a makeover that includes a hair trim, ear cleaning, a pedicure and a shower.
Christina Peng, 24, figures she and her boyfriend spend about $75 a month taking care of their Alaskan Malamute, Qiqi, who "only eats the most expensive brands" of pet food, Ms. Peng says. They bought Qiqi half a year ago as a companion for the boyfriend's mother after his father passed away. "My boyfriend is the only child, and both of us are busy working and don't have enough time to stay with her," says Ms. Peng.
Ms. Peng fumes at what happened in Mouding and wonders why the government doesn't use the money it earns from pet registration to provide free rabies vaccines. "Every time my Qiqi gets shots at the hospital, I can't look at his pathetic eyes," she says, "so I could imagine the horror suffered by the dogs in Mouding. This is outrageous!"
Chinese royalty once prized dogs, particularly the tiny Pekingese. But following the triumph of communism in 1949, dogs suffered the same fate as royalty. Ideologues frowned on dogs, cats and other pets as frivolous symbols of class and of capitalist decadence. A national ambivalence toward dogs is still evident today in meat markets of southern China, where skinned dog carcasses hang on large hooks next to slabs of beef and pork.
To many in rural China, the killings didn't come fast enough. "I wish they had killed the dogs earlier because this is a disaster for human beings," says Mr. Shi, a 44-year-old tobacco farmer in Mouding who declined to give his first name. His wife died late last month, after being bitten by her brother-in-law's dog.
Traditional funeral decorations still line the walls of his home. When asked about those who denounced the killings, he says, "They don't know how serious this disease is."
中国人焕发爱狗新热情
在云南省会昆明，现年20岁的大学生李云英（音）和她的家人周五在当地熙熙攘攘的宠物市场搜寻了一下午，想找到一只最适合她们家的小狗。
最终她花50美元买了一只铁锈色的波美拉尼亚犬。“很多电视明星都养狗，”她在嘈杂的犬吠中说。“这也是一种时尚。”她的上衣胸前有一个由金银亮片组成的英文单词“Woof”（意为狗吠）。
李云英对人类最好朋友的喜爱折射了中国社会风尚的巨大转变。直到不久前，狗在中国还被看作是一种阶级敌人。共产主义者不喜欢狗、猫以及其他宠物，因为他们认为宠物是资本主义颓废情调的象征。另外，这个国家对狗的复杂感情在南方的农贸市场上依然可见一斑：屠宰后被剥了皮的狗被挂在一个大铁钩上，与大块的牛肉和猪肉一起出售。
事实上，在云南省牟定县的政府官员上周下令捕杀该地区的50,000只狗后，中国对犬类不友好的名声又再度响亮起来。当地政府发布这样的命令是为了应对狂犬病爆发以及几个村民在遭狗咬后死亡的事件。牟定县距离昆明约三小时的车程。
牟定大规模屠杀狗的消息迅速在互联网上传开，引发了全球动物爱好者的强烈抗议。不过，这种愤怒不仅仅来自国外。这个消息很快成为中国最受欢迎的门户网站新浪网(Sina.com)上被讨论最多的话题。关于此话题的评论超过了15,000条，其中大多数都是尖锐的批评。“小狗们并没有做错什么，”一位中国网民在评论中写道。“如果人生病了，他们可以接受治疗。为什么要杀掉狗呢？”
在昆明的宠物市场，李云英的父亲董建林（音）说，在他还是个年轻人的文化大革命时代，他根本无法想像养宠物这样的事情。“那时候，我们甚至没有“宠物”这个词，”他一边说，一边与女儿讨论到底给狗买什么颜色的碗。“那时候我们很穷，连自己都没东西吃。怎么养狗啊？”
“但是现在，”他补充道，“我们越来越富裕了，有多余的钱来养宠物了。”
雷晓琴（音）三年前开始涉足宠物饲养业，当时她的医生告诉她，他在当地市场上卖了九只狗赚了10,000多元（约合1,200美元）。她很快就辞去了在昆明一家国营旅店的工作，开了一家出售英国古代牧羊犬的宠物店。这家店的店名是“逗乐”，是从美国颇受欢迎的狗粮品牌普瑞纳(Purina)的中文译名演化而来的。
宠物并不只是中国人富裕后的产物。它们也充当了中国家庭第二个孩子的替代品。根据中国的政策，每个家庭只能有一个孩子，多子女家庭现在已很少见了。雷晓琴说，中国家庭需要宠物。因为家里没有太多孩子，唯一的孩子通常都很孤独，没有人和他们一起玩耍。
宠物流行在中国最富裕的城市表现得最突出。中国畜牧业协会犬业分会(China National Kennel Club)的工作人员费岳海说，仅北京一地登记在册的宠物狗就有500,000只。他估计北京的宠物狗总数是这个数字的三倍左右。由于费用问题，很多狗都没有登记。根据中国公安部(Ministry of Public Security)的信息，一只宠物狗的登记费用从600元至1200元不等，因城区或郊区的地域差别而有所不同。登记后，宠物的主人每年还需缴纳300至600元的宠物年检费。
在北京，想要对宠物更加关爱的主人们可以把它们带到京城天使宠物医院(Jingcheng Tianshi Pet Hospital)。只要花费相当于15美元的费用，医院就可以提供修剪皮毛、清洁耳朵、美甲以及沐浴等全套宠物服务。北京共有500家这样的宠物诊所。
现年24岁的Christina Peng粗算了一下，她和男朋友每月花费约75美元照料他们的阿拉斯加爱斯基摩犬奇奇（音）。Christina说，奇奇只吃最贵的狗粮。半年前她男朋友的父亲去世，为了给他妈妈找个伴，他们就买了奇奇。Christina说：“我男朋友是家里唯一的孩子。我们俩工作都很忙，根本没有足够的时间来陪他妈妈。”她还补充说，她的邻居中有大约一半的家庭都养宠物。
Christina对牟定县“打狗事件”感到很愤怒，她不明白政府为什么不用从宠物狗登记中收来的费用提供免费的狂犬疫苗，并采取其他措施防止死亡病例的发生。她说，每次奇奇去医院打针的时候，她都不忍心看它那可伶的眼神。她可以想像牟定县的那些狗所经历的恐惧。这太残暴了。
宠物主人并不是唯一谴责“打狗事件”的群体。就连一些主流报纸也称牟定县的这个措施“极度残忍”、“冷血”。这也凸显了中央政府官员与那些身处偏远农村地区、需要亲手解决这些问题的管理者们在观念上的分歧。
当地的政府官员为他们的行动辩护说，他们已别无选择，只能杀掉狗来防止死亡人数的增加。之前，已经有三个人因被感染了狂犬病的狗咬伤而死亡，另外还有360人受伤。牟定县共和镇的一位党委副书记接受电话采访时说，牟定县政府曾努力预防狂犬病的大范围传播，但是后来发现疫情已很难控制了。之后，县政府就作出了捕杀狗的决定。这位官员还证实约有50,000只狗被打死或吊死。
据新华社(Xinhua news agency)上周五报导，山东济宁的官员表示他们计划捕杀发现狂犬病的每个村落周围五公里以内的所有狗。预计约有500,000只狗会被杀死。
现年44岁的牟定县史（音）姓烟农为当地政府没有更快地采取措施感到遗憾。他的妻子被狗咬后于7月25日去世。他拒绝向记者透露自己的名字。
他在家中对记者说：“我真希望他们早点把这些狗都杀了，因为这简直就是人类的灾难。”他家里仍有中国传统葬礼的摆设。当说到那些谴责杀狗的人们时，他说：“他们根本不知道狂犬病有多么严重，所以他们不理解这种做法。”牟定县的其他居民也表示，狂犬病对生命的威胁使他们别无选择，只能杀掉所有的狗。
然而，一些人在感情上仍然难以接受现实。上月末的一天，11岁的张宏伟（音）正在和小伙伴们在离家不远的池塘中游泳。这时候，一个农民走过来问他是否听说了政府发布的命令。
张宏伟曾听说有邻居试图把狗藏起来不让警察发现。但是这些狗最终还是被带走了，并被当街打死。他知道，如果把他的小狗小黑送到村干部那里，他的小黑会被吊死，而不是被打死。
于是在那天下午，他牵著小黑来到村里所有的狗的集中地。他把狗交了之后再没有回头看一眼。那个地点附近的一个告示上写著，每个上交狗的村民会得到相当于2美元的补偿。
他记得，那天下午送狗的路上他哭了。他说：“我很爱小黑。真的，就象爱我妈妈那么爱它。”
Nicholas Zamiska
