caring4dogs.com

It’s not a good time to be a dog, in China. Nor is it a good time to be a dog owner. The Chinese government’s total lack of concern for animal welfare is matched by its lofty disregard for its citizens, often treating them like worthless, troublesome peasants.

For too long, animals and people in China have been without a voice. But now, it seems, things are changing. The people are fighting back, and winning.

Two days ago, it was reported that authorities in Jiangmen City, in South China’s Guangdong province, had ordered that all dogs in the Pegjiang, Jianghai and Xinhui districts were to be removed or destroyed, from 26th August.

“We do not want to kill all the dogs in the city’s urban areas, but we want to create a better environment for the city by banning dogs,” a government spokesman told the China Daily.

But today, following fierce protests,  it has been announced that the order has been amended. No dogs will be summarily removed or destroyed, but dogs are forbidden from some public areas including parks, city squares, schools, kindergartens, shopping malls and hotels.

Also, the amendment includes more humane ways (not a term often associated with China) to deal with dogs found in the prohibited areas, for example, persuading owners to remove their animals.

This is a small victory which comes with restrictive conditions, but it’s a victory nonetheless.

As a rider to this story the China Daily points out that “Over past recent years, the Jiangmen city has been plagued by dogs attacking people. In 2010, a total of 12,014 residents in Pengjiang, Jianghai and Xinhui districts were injured in dog attacks.”

Clearly there is a problem which needs to be addressed, but a knee-jerk ban on dogs shouldn’t be the first choice. China has a thriving economy and will soon be the richest country in the world. But the realisation of what this can mean, in terms of improved education, and a raising of both human and animal welfare standards, is mired in medieval attitudes which have no place in the modern world.

Recent studies suggest that the domesticated dog descended from 3 females in China, about 15,000 years ago. How poignant, then, that China should now betray the long heritage of implicit, mutual trust which has formed the cornerstone of the man/dog relationship.

Not that China’s contempt for sentient life is confined to dogs (blatant human rights issues aside). Cats, foxes, mink, raccoon dogs, rabbits, bears – and just about any unfortunate creature that moves – all are considered fair game by the Chinese, and mis-treated accordingly.

All sentient beings possess the capacity for suffering, but the dog, by virtue of those special qualities which first gave rise to the man/dog relationship, and which are part of its genetic make-up, has the capacity to suffer all the more intensely. Thousands of years of selective breeding have accentuated desirable traits and produced a companion animal which has deservedly  become an intrinsic part of human society, not only as a faithful family pet, but also in many different roles, from sheepdog, to police dog, guide dog for the blind and many others. Above all, the dog exemplifies undying loyalty.

Imagine then, if a dog could express its sense of betrayal, what it might say at being forced to spend its entire life confined in a filthy, cramped, wire cage, deprived of shelter, food, water and affection, until one day, a noose is pulled tight around its neck, and it is dragged out of its cage to be clubbed half-senseless and then skinned alive for its fur; or beaten to within an inch of its life, to “tenderise” its flesh, before being brutally slaughtered for the table.

No other animal in human history has enjoyed such a close relationship with man, and yet in China, where perhaps it all began, the dog is now routinely treated with utter contempt and disregard.

What goes through the mind of a Chinese fur farm worker as he takes his knife and cuts around the terrified dog’s anus and then, as the dog screams and struggles in agony, inserts his fingers between the dog’s skin and flesh and peels the fur from the dog’s body and legs, and finally over its head? As a final act of callous betrayal the worker then flings the naked, bleeding, tortured, but still breathing  body onto a pile with other naked bodies, some still suffering, others finally dead and free at last from pain.  Later, the discarded bodies will be ground up and used as food for countless other dogs who are destined to soon share the same terrible fate.

How can the Chinese fur farm worker ignore such obvious suffering? What motivates him to torture live dogs, day in, day out? What sort of man is he?

What goes through the mind of the Chinese dog farmer as he brutalises yet another unfortunate dog, prior to slaughter? How does he reconcile the relentless pain and suffering he inflicts with the belief that flooding the dog’s system with adrenalin will make the meat “taste better”?

Why are some people happy to say “It’s their culture. Keep your nose out of other people’s business.”?

Can’t they see that culture is no defence for cruelty? Child sacrifice used to be acceptable in some societies. It didn’t make it right.

Or what about others who say “What’s the difference between eating a cow or a dog?  It’s all meat?”

The difference, and only the desecration of something so profound as to be almost sacred could ever qualify for such a distinction, is the terrible betrayal of trust. Man has selectively bred dogs to be faithful companions. To then abuse that relationship, and brutalise those animals for their fur or their meat, is a betrayal of fifteen thousand years of trust, and as such can only be very wrong.

Did you know that China has no animal welfare legislation? That China is the world’s largest producer of fur and fur products? That every year, China skins over 2,000,000 dogs and cats, along with untold numbers of rabbits, mink, foxes and raccoon dogs – many of those animals skinned while still alive?

What will make the Chinese government legislate against animal cruelty? Not a blog written by some “western imperialist”, that’s for sure. But they would take notice if the world stopped buying fur. If the fur trade dried up, there would be no need for Chinese fur farms, bringing an end to that particular avenue of suffering.

Please help to make it happen. Don’t buy fur products. Make a stand for the animals in China.

You can also add your voice to hundreds of thousands of others by signing this petition to Stand By Animals in China

Update 28/08/2011 Viewer discretion advised – The betrayal continues unabated