‘City Dogs Ownership’ has always been a topic of conversation, but also an increasingly prominent contradiction in Chinese Society. What are the reasons behind this situation?
Wei county in Yunnan province introduced new rules for dog control which was recognize as the most strict rules – Totally ban on dog walking in the city, three dog sightings will result in arrests – on November 2020.
The new regulations caused strong reaction in the society. Many people questioned about it for recognizing the regulations as impersonal and cruel.
A few days ago, the authorities announced that the implementation of the new rules would be suspended and they would be revised and improved.
The problem of ‘Dogs Ownership in the city’ has been a contradiction in China and often brought up for discussion.
In recent year, there have been frequent incidents of dogs injuring people in China. for example, an elderly woman died after tripping over off-leash dog, six-year-old girl bitten to death by off-leash wolf dog, an eight-year-old boy was bitten to death by a pit bull while playing in Anhui province…
Data shows that China sells 10-15 million doses of human rabies vaccine every year, which is the world’s largest producer and seller, accounting for 80% of global figures.
Various governments have issued regulations on dog ownership in order to reduce the number of such occurrences.
For example, Xian has regulations prohibiting the keeping of potent and large dogs, including common breeds such as golden retrievers and Chinese Crested dogs, in the city. Xuzhou doesn’t allow dogs walking in all parks in the city…
In fact, the government’s ‘Controversial’ regulations are not entirely without reasons.
According to the opinion poll, lots of people don’t like dogs because they think dogs urinate, defecate, run and bark, which affect their normal lives. For fear of being harmed by dogs, they give support to these regulations.
However, some people who have a dog or love animals think these regulations are too extreme.
People think that dogs are also lives on the earth and they are innocent. People who don’t like dogs have the right not to have them, but people who do like dogs have the right to have them too. The city need to have a greater inclusiveness not just serve humanity itself, which is too selfish.
It must not be ignored that we need to consider the realities of China.
Small but densely populated result in limited living space for people. Some problems are heightened in this case.
In addition, the varying levels of education lead to different quality of the population. Coupled with a lack of awareness in this area, some people don’t have concepts of protecting animals or Civilized pets ownership.
Jingnan Su, who is responsible for Animal Protection Organization, has her own opinion on the “extreme” policy to tackle the problem of urban dog ownership —
Many countries have well-done system in this area.
The United States is recognized around world as the country with the highest dog rights, which makes many members of Animals Protection call on people to love dogs as much as Americans do in China. However, the US ask very strict requirements for dog owners.
One insurer’s figures show that State Farm Insurance handled about 3,800 dog bite claims for $109 million in compensation and $28,700 for a single dog bite last year.
The United Kingdom also has fairly good and strict rules on dog ownership.
Laws that all dog owners need to know
Young people in china show an increasingly open and respectful attitude to the issue of urban dog ownership.
As concept ‘Civilized dogs ownership’ spreads, more and more dog owners start to develop a sense of civilized dog ownership, for example, walking dogs on a leash, cleaning up dogs’ faeces, not abandoning dogs…
There is a positive signal that some cities aware that relevant departments need to regulate the behavior of dog owners, instead of banning the existence of dogs in the city, and they have done some modifications on the rules.
Solving the problem of urban dog ownership is a process, and regulating the behavior of dog owners and changing the attitudes of extremists is not easy to achieve either.
An advanced society should be tolerant and empathetic, which will not only be the harmony between man and man, but also between man and animals.