China has the world’s second-highest death toll from rabies with cases due to increasing pet ownership and rising healthcare costs. The Chinese health ministry says 2,466 people died in China in 2008. A 2009 ministry report said only a fifth of China’s 75m dogs were vaccinated against the disease with around 40 million people a year that were bitten by animals (not all dogs). Dr Kati Loeffler, veterinary adviser for the International Fund for Animal Welfare in China, said: “Decades of research internationally have shown culling is absolutely ineffective in controlling rabies – the only way to control it is through mass vaccination. A big reason governments resort to mass culls is that people are not taking care of their animals properly in terms of health and environment allowing them to stray in the streets and become a public nuisance. On top of that many older Chinese are scared of dogs after years of being taught propaganda that dogs were trained by Westerners to attack them. This is something best dealt with using education of of the older population and the new younger middle class group. Mass culling will rid the city of dogs for a while but they will be back and the same issues will be present.
The Jiangmen Daily said officials aimed to “prevent and control rabies, maintain public order and sanitation, and create a sound environment for the people”. 42 of the city’s 4 million residents had died from rabies in the past three years according to the report. Any dogs seen in the Pengjiang, Jianghai and Xinhui districts after 26 August will be seized or killed, city officials say. Officials are giving residents the window from August 10th to the 25th in order to re-home their dogs.
“This is not scientific, not humane, and it will not last long. In short term, maybe it could be effective, but after that, people still want to keep dogs,” said Dr Tang Qing of the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention at China’s Centre for Disease Control. “People won’t accept it and implementing it will be difficult – you can’t break down doors to seize and kill dogs.” He added that a vaccination programme for dogs would be cheaper and more effective.
In Jiangmen, Gong Rongmao, a veterinarian at the city’s Agriculture bureau, said a special 13-acre centre had been set up to receive dogs from locals. “People in the countryside can come and adopt dogs from this centre later. Sick dogs will be put down though,” he said.
This is exactly what is happening in India too, esp in cities like Bangalore. Instead of a better sterilization and vaccination program, people are just beating dogs to death.
The animal rescue org are trying really hard to spread awareness about the futility of the culling, but they are outnumbered and dont have funds to have enough vaccination camps themselves..
its like a problem with no real solution!