OPINION> Alexis Hooi
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OPINION> Alexis Hooi
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Biting off more than one can chew
By Alexis Hooi (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-01 07:48
For many people young and old, few things are as adorable as a doe-eyed puppy peeking through the display window of a pet store. As one of the most popular domesticated animals in history, the Canis lupus familiaris also fills a well-known place in the human psyche that allows it to be called man's best friend. So it is only understandable that dog lovers nationwide became barking mad, when they got whiff of the initial decision two weeks ago by Heihe city authorities in Heilongjiang province to cull canines as part of efforts to "prevent rabies and clean up the streets". It also came as no surprise that the Heihe government retracted its move a week later, when it decided to seek public opinion on how best to manage the canine population in the city instead.
The "dog problem" cited by Heihe authorities suggests that the issue is far from resolved. Nor is it confined to this city alone. Especially when dog lovers alone do not make up the world. From unmanageable stray population to unsanitary excrement, communities across the globe are grappling with the best way to accommodate their dogs. Residents of an island in Malaysia's western Selangor state even rounded up more than 300 stray dogs recently and left the canines to fend for themselves on a mangrove island - only to see the dogs reduced to cannibalism after weeks of starvation.
The residents reportedly said they had only wanted to rid their island of the dogs that dirtied the streets with their waste and sometimes bit children. Nearer home in China, Beijing itself had more than 600,000 dogs already registered as pets two years ago, with at least 1 million households owning pets, according to figures from animal rights groups. Of these, about 50,000 pets, including dogs and cats, are said to be abandoned every year. Heihe authorities themselves said the dogs on its streets have wounded more than 1,000 people in the past year. Records from the city's Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed more than 1,000 residents in the city and nearby villages in the last 17 months being given anti-rabies injections after they were bitten by dogs. All this does not bode well for a country that has cities with some of the highest population density in the world, made up of increasingly affluent residents getting used to a consumer culture that promotes buying on a whim. That is why one of the most worrying trends for our canine companions should be how they are being snapped up in pet stores like toys off shelves. In Chengdu, Sichuan province, recent media reports have pointed to a rising trend of students rearing the pets because they are thought of as "cool" and "lovable". Not surprisingly, abandoned animals have also been common in the city, with a number of dog carcasses reportedly found on campuses becoming particularly grim examples of the trend. Authorities must understandably come up with ways to manage dogs and other pets that take into account the needs and concerns of its citizens. But, more importantly, residents themselves need to cultivate a culture of caring and responsibility wherein the animals are treated as fellow inhabitants and friends in a world that is increasingly becoming small. E-mail: alexishooi@chinadaily.com.cn (China Daily 06/01/2009 page4) |
