Friend’s Dog Killed

Look at this cute dog:

Its name is Ahuang, or Little Yellow. It is my friend’s dog. Early this week, it was robbed from his home and was killed. What a sad little thing. According to him, someone jumped into his house in suburb areas at 4:00 in early morning, and was killed and brought away. The guess is, they are going to sell the dog to meat market.

I have pictures of the little dog when it was just born one year ago, and feel sad about it. He was angry and of cause very sad. In his last 10 years, he had more than 10 dogs. The longest, he had the dog for 6 years, and shortest one only stayed for months. All of the dogs were robbed, or killed this way.

In this case, it is believed that the man robbed the dog for its meat. They can sell the dog to meat stores, and dog meat is served in many restaurants in the city.

Dogs. Poor Dogs

Talking about dogs, I am very concerned. The government is running campaign to kill dogs. Teams were setup with single mission – kill the dogs. People just don’t honor the value of life.

The dog adoption policy is, you have to pay the government for a dog adoption license. I don’t have a dog, so I don’t have first hand experience. According to my friends and verified on the Internet, the price is 2000 RMB for downtown, and 1000 RMB for places outside inner ring. What does it mean? It means you have to pay 1.4 month of the city’s average montly salary to get a license for your dog. In Guangzhou, the price is 10,000 RMB for the first year, and 6,000 RMB for every year after that.

Recently, the government is strength the policy. On both gate of the residential area I am living in, there are huge red banner saying: “If you love your dog, get a license for it”.

What I Interpretation is, “If you don’t want your dog killed, pay us”.

Dogs without License Must be Killed

Many police stations in cities and villages across the country have formed up “Dog-Killing Team” to go out (sometimes go into people’s house) to identify dogs without license. The owner either need to pay the money, or have their dogs killed.

The recent astonishing news about Douding’s event is just part of the story. They killed 50,000 dogs in 6 days. I read about some news (Disclaimer: I cannot verify whether its true or not), that the policemen are required to kill the dog before the face of the owner “as punishment”.

In Shanghai, the policy is, you have to bring the license with you all the time. If you are caught with a dog and without a license, the dog will be taken away, and you have to get your license to get the dog. Sad.

I don’t want to have a dog

I don’t know if I will adopt a dog or not in the future. I don’t have an idea about how I can protect it. What should I do when someone jump into my house and kill the dog before me, or come back home one day and found my dog dead. I just don’t want to have a dog at home when the terrible situation does not change.

Dogs are human’s friends. When the lives of millions of dogs can be taken away in just few days, how about people’s life?

30 thoughts on “Friend’s Dog Killed

  1. OMG, such a *horrible* thing! I’m not too surprised to hear about the criminal theft and then sale of the dead animals for profit, but I had no idea there were official policies like the ones you also describe. To kill a pet in front of the family that loves it is almost like killing a child — and it would be so traumatic for any children in the family who might witness the event. Ghastly!

    Is there public discussion of this situation, Jian Shuo, or is it another of those things where people are too afraid to speak out against officials?

    Also, I might have imagined that a dog running lose on the street could be kidnapped and killed by people in need of the money it might bring as meat (or in need of the meat for their own sustenance) but for the value to be high enough to risk entering a home? Unthinkable!

    Do the people who break in and steal dogs also steal other valuables from the home? Is the dog just an “incidental” addition to the theft, or is it just the dog that is wanted?

    I can’t imagine that a dog, dead or alive, unless it is of a very special breed that might bring a great deal of money if re-sold alive, could possibly be considered more valuable than something more easily stolen such as jewelry or money.

    I’m not someone who is “shocked” very easily by most things in life, but I admit to finding this extremely shocking.

    And very sad.

    To think that you might (with every good reason!) refrain from having a pet you would love and who would be so fortunate to find a loving home in your good care — very very sad, indeed :-(

  2. Can you tell us where these restaurant are?

    I need addresses, so I can find some dog meat next time I am in town.

  3. How cute the dog is!

    When I read the full story, I do not dare to see the dog’s eyes.

    Human being is the most cruel animal in the whole world!

  4. eating dog is not a crime in china, stealing/killing maybe!

    don’t think one can become a white guy by speaking better english and visiting the imperialist kingdom of america a dozen times, and maybe forgetting the chinaman has been eating dogs for thousands of years!

  5. The person who abducted your friend’s dog at 4am may not be the same killer as those sponsored by the government. They live in the same society. In a sense, random killers for dog meat are encouraged by the government’s stand on dogs.

    Despite a long history of eating dogs, the new policy by the government did not go through without any negative reactions. One noticeable campaign was launched on November 11, 2006, when a group of dog lovers gathered spontaneously in the front gate of the Beijing Zoo. It lasted three hours before armed police drove people away. However, a wide acceptance of dogs, esp. in cities, still has a long way go.

    Killing the loved ones in front of a family is one of the dark sides of human nature. Stories in this manner are constantly being renewed. A recent one was by Steven D. Green and his fellow US soldiers on March 12, 2006, in the rape and murder of a young Iraqi woman and her family in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad.

  6. Carroll, the person who stole the dog went to other people’s home just to steal dogs. It is common. It is not an accident. It is intentional. According to my friends, there are people in the village to appear with steal poles before people’s face to ask for either people’s life or the dog’s life. Most people gave up their dogs. Anyway, this is just the sad story in villages.

    But it is completely a different story for the government officials who are authorized to kill dogs.

    In the last month (including today), the bulletin board at the gate still shows:

    Completely obey government’s order to enforce dog license. No dogs in public places, like streets, square…

    There are hot discussions on the Internet. When it “crosses the line”, it will be censored and deleted.

  7. Such a sad commentary on the hard hearts of the officials, and perhaps also the desperation of people in the villages.

  8. I had a dog which I brought back from Singapore, and she looks like Ahuang. Firstly, my full sympothy to Xipan for the loss of Ahuang.

    I live in Pudong too,DaTang if you know where, and my dog doesn’t have local dog license. She had a Singapore dog license, which I will use to protect her if anyone chanllenge it. I am thinking of get her a shanghai license, but the stupid answer I got from police station is that the license is only valid for one address and it doesn’t last for one year but until Feb or march of each year. That means, if I got a license now,(Jan 07), it will expire one month later (at Feb) and I need to get a new one for another year from Feb onwards.

    I think we dog lovers need to make some noises for the government to hear it.

  9. Jian Shuo, if you like dog but don’t want to commit to adopt one at the moment, you may contact me. Maybe you can spend some time with my dog. We stay nearby, I believe.

  10. Thanks James for the offer. Good luck to your dog. I can feel you love your dog very much. Currently, it is not about making noises. It is not that people don’t know, it is that people don’t want to or dare to say no. Just like the banner at the gate of our residential area, it said: “Completely obey xxxxx’s order…”. People are more eager to show their faithfulness to the government instead of show sympathy to its people. Showing sympathy to its people is sometimes dangerous thing to do, since it will be treated “retreat the country”.

  11. This sounds like another over the top, excessive, blungeont way the government is responding to a social problem, one in which they will find to be ultimately ineffective after the culling and may infact worsen the situation.

    My question is; no one here seems to have written what the situation is, that the government is responding to? Has there been growing dog attacks? Rabbies? Hygene issues? Excessive dog population increases?

    I remember when i was growing up, a local doberman attacked a little girl, and ripped off her face. The gov responded through a panel that deemed dobermans to be too violent and dangerous to be kept as pets and passed a law that forbid the sales of dobermans, and the killing of all existing ones. The results? Owners began releasing their dogs to the wild, so they wouldn’t have to face charges or have their dogs killed, thus bring a potential of packs of wild dobermans…

    Seems that may apply to this case you describe here too.

    Though I don’t think your comment that the chinese government supports theft, sales and consumption of pet dogs is true. Its motives should still probably be something socially reasonable, and supporting health risks of eating meat from illegal and unknow sources is not likely one of them.

    They may be stupid, arrogant and violent at times, but they aren’t purposefully evil.

  12. This is a sad commentary about modern day China. Both the theft of family pets and the dog culls with the police killing dogs.

    What has not been discussed is the dog fur farms. These are another reason for families losing pets. China is the biggest source of dog and cat fur in the world. Any department store you go to in the U.S. sells clothing from China and on many coats is clearly dog fur, cat fur, raccoon dogs or rabbit fur. The fur of German Sheppherd dogs is most distinctive and easily identified.

    They don’t even kill the dogs before they skin them alive. They hit them in the head and make them disoriented and then start skinning them alive. This industry is truly satanic and so are the suppliers of dogs – the thieves that capture roaming dog. No compassion whatsoever for a living creature or the horrible pain it feels while being separated from its’ fur.

    Another bad thing is that many non-Chinese then believe all Chinese are inhumane — and that is sad also. I tell them that I have many many friends in China who would never think of participating in such atrocities and have their own pets they love.

    As for the dog culls, rabies is the excuse but other countries have dog vaccination programs which deal with the problem. All that is needed is this and the whole insane issue can be taken care of once and for all. I suspect that those in control would just rather kill because its easier and cheaper. The truth is that another whole industry could be set up in animal care. The veterinary profession in China is far less than in western countries. Indeed, you dont even have to be a trained veterinarian to open up a veterinary clinic.

    If the government were to set up legitimate clinics and require people to get their animals vaccinated against the various diseases and get the proper medical attention, they would have another industry to require other fees from and tax. It would be soooooooooooooo easy.

    What is not said is that the government really doesn’t want dogs around so they just charge huge fees to discourage dog ownership and then use that as an excuse to kill them all when people don’t pay.

    Of course, the other problem is that dogs dont get the proper medical attention when they are not licensed because owners dont want to draw attention to their “unlicensed” dog.

    So, it is unfortunate that there is not a humane orientation to those in power. Perhaps someday they will join the nations of the world who believe what Gandhi once said, “The moral progress of a nation and its’ greatness can be assessed by the way its treats its’ animals.”

    By the way, I am not picking on China. No country is perfect. (In fact, I am not happy with my own President right now either. I can’t wait for him to be gone.)

    The point is that the government should reflect the will of the people and the people should be guided by their moral compass. Most of us know what is right and wrong, good and bad, humane and inhumane. We know that giving is good and greed is bad. That caring is proper and uncaring is not.

    The problem is when we allow those who only operate according only to their own self-interest, their own greed, corruption and deception to continue doing bad things. In China and in other countries that want to be fully accepted by the rest of the world understand that kindness towards our four-legged friends is important and not something to be ignored – because others will think of you badly.

    Try to make a difference and create awareness of your positions. Nothing will happen unless people make their positions known in overwhelming numbers.

  13. This simply shows how nauseating humans can be. It is a grave crime and the criminal MUST be punished. No doubt, the more you know people, the more you love your dog.

    Amr Gohar (Dr)

  14. im sorry for your loss. I relly like chicken more than dogs and cats but pizzas better

  15. This is Casey C’s English teacher. I have chastised him for his rude comments and told him to get back to work on his research paper. Shame on you, Casey! Your grammer was horrible, too.

  16. I was glad to read Redirk’s comments. I expressed my concern over exactly the same problem on another forum this week and all I got was a lot of abuse , not from Chinese people, but from Western people who travel there a lot and say that they think animals are worthless anyway. I was very upset about it because they abused me personally because I choose to be vegetarian and care very much about animal welfare.

    I am very glad to read this webpage and see that there genuinely are Chinese people who feel very strongly about animal welfare in their country. I now understand why the situation is difficult because I didn’t realise about the dog licenses. On TV in the UK, we have been seeing a lot about the fur farms in China and it has been upsetting.

    Jian Shuo – I wish you good luck in your campaign and I really hope you can get a lot of other people on your side.

  17. This is China government. What else do you expect? A government who doesn’t care for human life should have a loving heart for dogs? Impossible. China is criminal.

  18. I feel very sad about the event, i think the dog is human’s best friend, in the childhood , i had a dog from my neighbour . it is very lively and i like it very much ,but someday quarreled with my father because a trifle .that night the bad man throw away some food with poison to my yard ,the dog in the yard ate the food and died. i was so sad and hate the bad man. the dog is innocent, why should it die.I hate the bad man for many years .furthermore i never had any pet .I also believe the bad man must be punished some day.

  19. I have 2 dogs now.

    I had 4 more over the last 22 years.

    The oldest one lived to a ripe old age of 18.

    They are all my best friends.

    Where is the heart of my people ?

    I don’t think I want to say anything more.

  20. SHANGHAI IS SENDING OUT DOG KILL TEAMS ON AUGUST 27th BEFORE THE EXPO, WHY DON’T PEOPLE STAND-UP AND SAY FUCK THEM AND THEIR BS POLICIES…Lying is just part of what they do. Killing dogs is stupid just as those are who want to do it.

  21. what a sad thing they should not make a police killing dog it is so cruel they shouid be kind . =(

  22. Actually i does not have a dog i am just a kid it i wanted to learn more about animal when i heard this News i almost wanted to cry =( but ialways remeber that dog is man best friend=)

  23. I been on afew web sites about these issues in China with the fur trade and slaughtering or dogs and cats. After watching those videos made me sick to my stomach and i felt like many other people “nuke the chinks” but most likly thats not going to happen. So we just have to get the message across to everybody, most of all to people in high places with lots of money and power. We need to do this in larger number go there and shut them down. Send them all rats and road kill instead from here.

    STOP BUYING SHIT FROM CHINA

  24. China is a horrible filthy cesspit. They are the largest and worst violators of human rights and animal welfare on the planet. The heart of a man is truly exposed by the way he treats an animal. The only reasonable solution is to nuke China and then to carpet bomb the ashes. Fucking Zips can all burn. Except for the few of good ones – you know who you are – just stay out of the way and you’ll be alright.

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