CommentsANIMAL WATCH-After years of ignoring a burgeoning problem of stray dogs and cats in the streets, aggressive dog attacks and fear of disease have caused China's major cities to replicate the government's reaction to a perceived need for human population control by issuing a one-child rule in 1979. However, since pets can be hidden or just released, enforcement will be challenging -- especially restrictions such as Qingdao's ban on 40 breeds considered "dangerous."
China Lifts One-Child per Family Rule
On October 29, 2015, worldwide media reports announced that the Communist Party issued a statement changing its "one-child" policy and, after more than three decades of draconian punishment for any "unpermitted" pregnancy, it would allow couples to have two children. The decision is designed "to improve the balanced development of population'' and to deal with an aging population, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Since 1979, punishment had been harsh for couples who violated the one-child policy, including multiple forced abortions, heavy fines that crippled the family financially, and even loss of employment.
In 2013 the rule was relaxed to allow approximately 10 million couples (pairs where at least one partner was an only child) to add another baby to their family. However, according to the BBC, fewer than a million applied -- less than half the number the government expected.
And, in the most affluent cities such as Shanghai, where about 90% of women of child-bearing age were eligible for a second child under the rule change of 2013, only 5% applied. With more young families realizing the increasing cost of living and young women enjoying higher education and the freedom of lucrative careers, many opted not to increase their family size merely to fill a deficit caused by the government's invasion of their bedrooms.
The 2015 decision to formally allow two-children was not from a sudden realization of the inhumaneness of this restriction, but an effort to increase the number of young people entering the workforce and support the skyrocketing costs of future social programs and looming pensions. An estimated 30% of China's total population of 1.36 billion was over the age of 50.
A global population-change chart by the BBC shows China outpacing India in population growth in 2015. The National Health and Family Planning Commission reports that China welcomed 17.86 million new children in 2016, an annual increase of 7.9 percent, with nearly half of the new births occurring in families which already had one child.
Chinese Cultural Shift Includes Pets
Another change that has accompanied the rise of China’s modern middle-class is Western influence, resulting in a cultural shift in attitudes toward dogs (and cats) and transforming them into pets, rather than a food source or hunting aide. Many Chinese households and singles in their homeland and in the U.S. now consider their pets beloved family members.
Reports also acknowledged that pets were filling in for the void caused by the one-child policy.
It is a little known fact that the People’s Republic is now third in the world in dog ownership, with a total of 27.4 million, and second only to the U.S., with 55.3 million canine pets, according to data quoted by Forbes from the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The same is true of cat ownership. Chinese cat owners now number 58.1 million, compared to 80.6 million in the U.S. China’s $1.5 billion pet care industry is also booming, according to Dauxue Consulting.
Lack of Humane Laws and the Dog-Meat Industry
But on the dark side of the explosion of pets in China, is an unconstrained and unmonitored breeding industry and an absence of spay/neuter requirements for household pets.
The sharp rise in ownership of dogs and cats in China also has not been accompanied by laws to protect them from harm -- and there are no animal-cruelty laws.
Dogs are still used as food, with specialty restaurants in large cities and mass killings at the annual Yulin dog meat festival, which starts on June 21 and continues until June 30. A petition with over 11 million signatures from all over the world, and strongly supported by Chinese activists and dog lovers, was presented to the Chinese government last year asking for a ban. Although it did not end the festival, the greatest hope is in the aversion and opposition of the current generation of Chinese to this “tradition”-- not just outsiders trying to force change.
The Future of Animal Welfare in China
In an interview with China Dialogue in 2013, Peter Li, Associate Professor of East Asian Politics at the University of Houston-Downtown and China Policy Specialist of Humane Society International, he was asked, “Is it inevitable that China's growing middle-class will be concerned about animal welfare?”
Here are excerpts from his response to that question:
“Chinese media attention on animal abuse and animal welfare problems started in the late 1990s. Media attention on animal suffering is a radical revolution. In China’s pre-reform era, animal suffering or animal protection issues were never a report subject. Love of animals was condemned as bourgeois.
“Young people who have no recollection of the past and not influenced by the extremist ideological bias against pet ownership, are more likely to find cruelty to animals unacceptable.
“The younger, particularly urban, generation in China is more concerned about animal rights.
“The younger generation has a higher level of sensitivity to cruelty and a lower level of tolerance to brutality. Second, the younger generation is more generous in spending on the so-called non-essential items such as entertainment, travel and pet ownership. They care less about food on the table and are better donors to charities. Finally, they are exposed to ideas that their parents were not such as animal welfare, ecology….A better economic situation generally allows people the extra resources for animal protection.
“Chinese law scholars proposed two animal protection legislative proposals in 2009 and 2010, but it is yet to be on the radar screen of China’s National People’s Congress. Economic concern may be the roadblock….I am sure China will have a comprehensive animal protection law. If it were enacted, it would encounter enforcement problems, but at least we would have something to fall back on when cases of abuse happen. I am cautiously optimistic, though I know animal protection legislation will not be born in the near future.”
Strays, Dog Attacks and Disease
On September 22, 2016, South China Morning Post reported, "Beijing residents warned to avoid stray dogs after more than 2,000 people report being bitten." The report states:
“Animal protection groups in Beijing called for the government to control the number of stray dogs, impose tougher restrictions and stricter enforcement of rules on keeping dogs and punishment for abandonment after more than 2,000 Beijing residents were bitten by strays during the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday last week, prompting disease control authorities in the capital to issue a warning.”
This followed other reports of multiple bites occurring in local areas.
Rules on keeping dogs, introduced in 2003 have never been updated, activists lament. The city’s public security authorities are responsible for setting up shelters to “take in and deal with” strays.
But police complained they were unable to properly manage such a large number of animals, according to Xinmin Evening News.
In 2011, Beijing’s 20 million residents registered more than one million pet dogs -- a sevenfold increase from 2003, mainland media reported at the time. But animal protection organizations believe there were more than two million registered and unregistered dogs in Beijing in 2013, the Oriental Outlook reported.
Chris Barden, who rescues and adopts out strays at Little Adoption Shop, told the Morning Post, that government needs to "overhaul its dog management policies and enforcement." She described current random enforcement as "unrealistic and enforcement is arbitrary, brutal and unscientific."
On September 6, 2015, Shanghai Daily headlines read, Stray Dogs, cats in crisis numbers, calling stray animals "an urban scourge in China," and encouraging spay/neuter.
Shanghai's Liu Lang, vice president of the China Veterinary Association, estimates that approximately 70,000 stray dogs and cats have been neutered in the past eight years, but this is not even a dent in feral/homeless populations, which are estimated at 1.3 million in just the two cities of Beijing and Tianjin.
One-Dog Policy (Again) Spreads across China
Thus, on June 8, 2017, news spread quickly that China is now enacting a one-dog policy allowing only one canine per household.
Qingdao, in the eastern part of China, followed Beijing and other cities, in releasing new rules that will levy fines of 2,000 yuan ($294) on people who have more than one dog, according to the Beijing News.
Registration of the pet is compulsory, plus payment of 400 yuan ($60) service fee for the upkeep of the animal, which will be spent on animal shelters and services for canines in the city.
Over 40 different kinds of “strong dogs”’ have been banned, including “ferocious” dogs like Pit Bulls, Doberman Pinschers and Tibetan Mastiffs
“More and more residents have dogs, but that has caused incidents of dogs disturbing or even injuring people,” Qingdao’s local public security bureau told the Beijing News. “It’s based on the approach taken by other cities.”
Qingdao’s new regulations (below) follow a similar decision in Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan province, which introduced its one-dog policy in 2009.
(1) People who already have more than one registered dog which has been properly immunized will not be affected by the new restrictions.
(2) Dogs must also be vaccinated and registered, and must also wear electronic identity devices. The devices are similar to identity cards and will contain information such as the dog’s age, color, and the owner’s contact information.
(3) Dogs must be kept on a leash at all times and owners must immediately clean up their excrement.
(4) Guide dogs for the blind are also exempt.
In 2006, Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals opined, "China may be barking up the right tree, by forcing people to have only one dog. It would eliminate a lot of impulse purchasing and possibly curb the number of dogs that are later abandoned to the streets."
China Needs to Address Pet Overpopulation with Spay/Neuter
Although the efforts in China to gain control of strays and require responsibility for owned dogs is vital and commendable, there is no declared policy being established in China to require (or even encourage) spay/neuter. And no government program seems to be planned for this purpose.
Why Los Angeles Should Care about China’s Dogs
Pet overpopulation can no longer be viewed as a citywide or countrywide issue, when it is obviously a worldwide problem. This is especially true when animals from China and other wealthy countries are being imported for adoption in Los Angeles and taking homes from animals in our overcrowded shelters. (See ‘Rescued Dogs’ Imported from Asia Infected with Deadly Influenza … Was LA Properly Warned?)
Here are just a two reports on China's recent investments in Los Angeles:
On April 11, 2016, The LA Times reported "Chinese investments in U.S. businesses hit a record $15 billion last year, with California remaining a top destination." In 2014, California's $3.1 billion in Chinese investment dwarfed New York's $710 million, the report stated.
And, on May 17, 2017, Curbed LA informed us that "seven percent of all Chinese investment in American real estate in 2016 was centered in the LA area, with over $1.5 billion of total spending," the same amount also seen in 2015.
Given the growing presence of Chinese investment in the U.S. and here in Los Angeles, our city should exert pressure on China to address the need for controlling its pet population. On the brink of being able to boast "no kill” in LA -- according to city officials and Best Friends -- this is a chance for Mayor Eric Garcetti, the City Council and LA Animal Services Brenda Barnette to demand that China begin a government-run spay/neuter program for pets.
(Phyllis M. Daugherty is a former City of LA employee and a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
-cw
