Chinese Officials Kill 50,000 Dogs To Stave Off Rabies
Komfie Manalo - All Headline News Foreign Correspondent Shanghai, China (AHN) - Chinese media confirmed Tuesday that roughly 50,000 dogs have been slaughtered in a southwestern county in China, after three people died from rabies. The Shanghai Daily said the Yunna province's Mouding county ordered the five-day slaughter and spared only military guard dogs and police canine units. In the report, dog killing teams were sent to homes and beat dogs on the spot to the shock of owners. Dog owners were offered 63 cents to kill their animals before the teams arrived, the paper said. The massacre drew criticism from legal scholars and animal rights activists, describing the method of killing as crude and cold-blooded. The World Health Organization has suggested that more emphasis is put on the prevention of the spread of rabies, instead of killing the dogs en masse. The Legal Daily newspaper which is run by the central government's Politics and Law Committee said in its editorial, "Wiping out the dogs shows these government officials didn't do their jobs right in protecting people from rabies in the first place." Dr. Francette Dusan, a WHO expert on diseases passed from animals to people, said effective rabies control required coordinated efforts between human and animal health agencies and authorities. He said, "This has not been pursued adequately to date in China with most control efforts consisting of pu |
