MONTH: SEPTEMBER 2006
Helping from beyond the Great Wall challenges
"foreign devils"
HONG KONG, WASHINGTON D.C.--Animal
advocates outside China erupted as vehemently as Chinese counterparts
to word of the summer 2006 dog purges, but had difficulty finding
effective ways to protest.
Because the Beijing government allowed discussion of the dog purges
to hit the Internet, western as well as Chinese domestic reaction
was markedly more intense than as recently as 2003, when far more
dogs were killed, to a fraction of the 2006 global notice.
"The killings have extra resonance in China's Year of the Dog,"
the Financial Times editorialized. "The reaction has highlighted
changing attitudes since the animal last appeared in the zodiacal
cycle. In 1994, dog-beating squads were common even in big cities
and the People's Daily, mouthpiece of the ruling Communist party,
was demanding an end to the newly popular but 'uncivilized and unhealthy'
practice of keeping dogs as pets.
"Beaters in Yunnan province alone killed 10 million dogs in
the three years to 1991, state media reported then, with no hint
of protest. China's urban middle classes have since become hugely
enthusiastic pet owners, and are increasingly open to ideas of animal
rights and restrained government."
Leaders of both Chinese and western-led animal charities working
within China recognized that the Chinese state media may have been
allowed to amplify the unprecedented internal protest against the
dog purges as part of the central government effort to build public
opinion in favor of the introduction of a promised national humane
law. Beijing officials have hinted that the long-rumored and anticipated
legislation will be in place before the 2008 Olympics.
"Local groups are working individually, and together through
the China Companion Animal Protection Network," e-mailed ACTAsia
representative Pei-Feng Su to activist online bulletin boards, trying
to coordinate non-Chinese activists' activity with the domestic
response.
"The local groups recognise that they should use this incident
as an example to urge the government to have a humane policy and
methods for rabies elimination and dog control," Pei-Feng Su
continued. "They are currently preparing a document for the
government on this issue. "A peaceful anti-culling event will
be held to condemn the mass culling, initiated by 28 local animal
groups. The local groups have said that international support is
urgently needed for local activities. However, instead of directly
contacting the Chinese authorities," Pei-Feng Su suggested,
"it would be very helpful if organisations could provide the
local groups with statements which would help them in their discussions
with the authorities, and prevent any suggestion that the groups
are trying to undermine the Chinese government."
Pei-Feng Su offered guidelines for letter-writing, c/o <pei@actasia.org>.
Said Animals Asia Foundation founder Jill Robinson, "We have
requested urgent meetings with the central government in Beijing,
where we hope to bring together key Chinese animal welfare advocates
to discuss what is needed to address rabies and stray dog control
throughout China."
IFAW China representative Grace Gabriel e-mailed to members that,
"On August 1, in a telephone conversation with the Chuxiong
Prefecture government office, IFAW was told that the dog killing
in Muding County has been stopped. If that is true, we urge the
local government to issue an official public statement to that effect.
A public statement would be a warning to other municipalities that
inhumane killing of dogs is ineffective against rabies and is not
acceptable in any society worldwide."
Unsatisfied by diplomatic letters and calls for statements, some
non-Chinese animal advocates flamed government offices and news
media
Shanghai Daily columnist Wang Yong, after denouncing the dog purges,
made creative use of offensive e-mails from abroad to decry the
alleged hypocricy of the flamers by describing western-style factory
farming of poultry. Wang Yong may have encouraged readers to wonder
how chickens are raised in China, and to read Animal Factories by
Peter Singer and Jim Mason, cited as sources and available in a
Chinese edition.
Boycott threat
PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk appealed for a general
boycott of China, mentioning also Chinese live market cruelty, live
feeding of large carnivores at some Chinese wildlife parks, bear
bile farming, that "China supplies more than half the monkeys
imported to the U.S. for experiments, and that number has increased
sevenfold in the last 10 years," and that "With the world's
largest population of sheep, lambs, goats, and kids, China is the
world's most prolific exporter of the hides of these animals as
well as those of cows. In 2004, Chinese leather constituted more
than one-third of all exported leather in the world," consistent
with China leading the world--by far--in animal slaughter.
PETA did not mention that the public health and wildlife management
branches of the Beijing government have tried in recent years to
more stringently regulate live markets, live feeding at wildlife
parks, and bear bile farming, albeit against some resistance from
other levels of government.
"Foreigners, no matter how angry about the dog massacres, should
understand that there are many Chinese people who care for animals
and also protest against the dog killing," Animal Rescue Beijing
spokesperson Irene Zhang told ANIMAL PEOPLE.
"I agree that use of boycott threats does not work," said
University of Houston political scientist Peter Li. Li emigrated
to the U.S. from Jianxi, China, in 1994, bringing his pet cats,
and has returned to China several times to direct landmark surveys
about public attitudes toward animal welfare.
"The Chinese Communist officials have less incentive to respond
positively if the international community or members of it use threats
of boycott to facilitate change," Li continued. "Like
North Korea, the Chinese government has never bowed to outside threats.
But, it does selectively respond to friendly suggestions and pressures
without making threats."
No-kills vs. animal control
That was the approach taken by Blue Cross of India
chief executive Chinny Krishna, who wrote to Chinese officials urging
the introduction of programs parallel to the Animal Birth Control
programs that the Blue Cross of India initiated in Chennai in 1964.
The ABC approach became Indian national policy in December 1997.
"If the purpose of killing dogs in Chennai was to control the
street dog population and the incidence of rabies, the killing failed,"
Krishna said. "Each year, since 1860, the city killed more
animals, yet the number of dogs and incidence of rabies kept going
up. Dog killing was ended in 1996, at which time as many as 135
dogs were most cruelly electrocuted each day in Chennai. After the
killing stopped completely, the number of rabies cases came down
from 120 in 1996 to five in each of the last two years."
Humane Society of the U.S. president Wayne Pacelle offered China
$100,000 "to assist the Chinese government in developing a
humane animal control and rabies prevention program for the country."
The offer was delivered along with baskets of letters during an
HSUS-led demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in Washington
D.C. "We are prepared to send a delegation of veterinarians
to China if they take us up on the offer," Pacelle told ANIMAL
PEOPLE.
How far and how fast Beijing will move, and how much use China might
make of outside help in addressing animal issues, is still quite
unclear.
"The central authorities in Beijing are the last group of the
Chinese leaders who refuse to pose in pictures with their pets,"
pointed out Peter Li. "The ideological indoctrination they
received in Mao Tsetung's time was biased against live pets. Chinese
leaders posing with their pets would be an earthshaking signal."
"Our work and research shows a definite upswing in positive
attitudes towards companion animals in China," said Jill Robinson.
"Although we are still a long way away from a countrywide declaration
that dogs and cats are our friends, not food or fur, I feel a boycott
could potentially set things back. It's worth remembering that when
similar boycotts were called during South Korea's bid for the Olympic
Games in the late 1980s, student groups across the country were
outraged and even called upon their peers to kill and eat more dogs
and cats as a protest against Western imperialism. Historically,
the Chinese government has fiercely resisted outside threats,"
Robinson said, echoing Li, "and is generally more amenable
to positive initiatives addressing the problems at hand.
"Working together with local groups, academics and officials
just now is imperative," Robinson emphasized. "Gathering
and translating information from international experts on responsible
rabies reduction programs which have been effective in other countries,
together with enhancing and promoting the proven benefits of sharing
our lives with companion animals, such as our Dr. Dog animal therapy
program, now running successfully in China, will be better accepted
and more beneficial than a boycott."
--Merritt Clifton
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