“Owner has to muzzle a PUPPY or the pup would be taken and beaten to death by Chinese police”. This is the claim of an animal advocate on Twitter X: Phaedra. She does not tell us why the police would kill the dog or puppy. I can only guess: the Chinese devalue dogs hugely. There is some horrible cruelty against dogs for the Yulin Dog Meat market. And during Covid there was some gross cruelty against dogs – bludgeoned to death. Horrible again. I am guessing that there is a fear of getting Covid from dogs. That’s all I can think of at this time, Any ideas? Please comment.
But the pictures indicate a country deeply confused about dog ownership. A country with a very dysfunctional relationship with dogs. However, there must be many Chinese who love dogs and treat them beautifully. We cannot generalise. That would be falling into a trap. Although the comments on Twitter X accompanying these photos are very critical of China. Perhaps rightly so. President Xi Jinping supports the dog meat and dog fur markets in China. Both are obscene and barbaric. Humans reduced to a kind of behaviour which might have been acceptable in the Middle Ages but not in the 21st century. But as I have mentioned before, there are no animal welfare laws in China, the world’s second largest economy after America. Can you believe it. How backward is that? Back to the Dark Ages.
China is the oldest and worst culture on Earth.
Willy James commenting on Twitter X
It seems that China is stuck in the past. According to Ai Weiwei, the Chinese contemporary artist living in exile, the Chinese view dogs as entirely functional. There appears to be no recognition of sentience. But I should not generalise. Chinese society must be very difficult for animal lovers. They would seem to be out of step with the authorities.
I’ve done some research since writing the above. There does seem to be an underlying hostility towards dogs in China. For instance, a county in China’s Yunnan province banned residents from walking their dogs in public from November 20, 2020. I’m not sure if that law was overruled but at the time if a person was caught walking a dog three times in a row, the animal was confiscated.
And in 2018 the city of Hangzhou dog walking during daytime in public places was/is banned. They also prohibit larger breeds.
China does not ban the import of any dog breeds but there are restrictions in Shanghai, Chengdu and Beijing. Owners should be aware of them.
Underpinning this attitude towards dogs is the dog meat trade in China and Vietnam. I won’t go into details but you won’t get a more horrendous abuse or cruelty against dogs or any other animal for that matter than you get against dogs within the Chinese dog meat trade. It is simply utterly barbaric and beyond belief. This must go to the attitude of a substantial percentage of Chinese towards dogs.
I’ve also learned that pets cannot travel by train in China as it is strictly prohibited. Pets travelling by car require a health certificate and pets travelling by air are not allowed in the cabin. Hostile or what?!
Set against this background, the middle classes of China are warming to the idea of adopting a companion dog. There has been a shift in attitudes towards animals and animal welfare among a significant section of society in China resulting in increased ownership. It’s remarkable when you think about it because there appears to be too pressures pushing in different directions.
Further research indicates that in Beijing there are some pretty heavy canine restrictions. The city bans residents in ine downtown districts from raising more than one pet dog. There are rules against big dogs and those with aggressive temperaments. In these nine downtown districts residents can only own one small toy dog or a non-sporting dog.
Those who violate these regulations face a fine of the equivalent of about US$633 (5000 yuan). Beijing regulations make it illegal to keep dogs taller than 35 cm which is 1.1 ft. This means that golden retrievers are outlawed and can be seized and killed by the authorities.
The above information has not been verified by me but comes from various websites while researching the topic. Regulations and laws change frequently and therefore it’s advisable to check. At the moment all I can do is report what I read on the Internet. At the least, however, the information here does give you a pointer as to the kind of regulations that might exist in China.
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