Dog-killing: SPCA calls for China boycott

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) is calling upon the public to boycott all goods manufactured in China.

This comes in the wake of the killing of more than 50 000 dogs in the Mouding area of south-west China, over a five-day period, as part of a rabies crackdown campaign.

Another city Jining announced it too would kill all dogs within 5km of areas where rabies was found. The city has about 500 000 dogs.

Mouding's five-day massacre, which ended last Sunday, spared only military guard dogs and police canine units.

According to the Shanghai Daily newspaper, dogs being walked were taken from their owners and beaten to death on the spot in front of their owners' eyes.

Led by the county police chief, other killing teams entered villages at night creating noise to get dogs barking, then homed in on their prey.

Owners were apparently offered 5 yuan (R4,41) per animal to kill their own dogs before the teams were sent in. According to the World Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, several owners had then poisoned or electrocuted their animals.

The slaughter was ordered after about 360 of the county's 200 000 residents suffered dog bites this year, with three people reportedly dying of rabies, including a four-year-old girl.

The official newspaper Legal Daily blasted the killings as an "extraordinarily crude, cold-blooded and lazy way for the government to deal with epidemic disease".

Several European animal right organisations have called for a boycott of all Chinese products.

The NSPCA's Marcelle Meredith said that while accepting that rabies was a problem, the Society believed there was no justification for the indiscriminate killing of tens of thousands of dogs.

According to a BBC report, 4 000 of the dogs killed had already been vaccinated against rabies.

"A mass boycott would send a clear message that caring people do not and will not accept China's cruel actions," she said. - Sapa-AP