Dogs in China face a bleak start to the Year of the Dog as families trawl pet
stores for gifts ahead of the Spring
Festival, animal rights activists say.
Just weeks after bringing cats and dogs home, many residents realise they are
too much like hard work and abandon them on the street.
A vendor sells dogs dressed in Chinese
style clothing at a dog market in Tongxian, a suburb of Beijing,
Saturday, Nov. 20, 2004. The three-month-old puppies were selling for 1200 Yuan
(US$145.00) each. According to state media reports, one in 10 Beijing families
keeps a pet - despite high annual registration fees and restrictions on when
they can be walked in the streets. [AP Photo]
The phenomenon is expected to be at its worst after the Lunar New Year
holiday which begins on January 29, heralding the Year of the Dog, which makes
canines an auspicious seasonal gift.
"New year is twice as bad. Pick a year and then pick the animal," said Carol
Wolfson, founder and director of Second Chance Animal Aid, a nine-month-old Shanghai
organisation that runs an adoption and shelter programme for abandoned pets.
"Pet stores pump them full of antibiotics to make them look cute and then
they die a few weeks later. Or else owners just put them out on the street when
they've had enough," Wolfson told Reuters.
Abandoned animals are the dark side of the explosion of pet ownership across
China in recent years. The national pet population hit nearly 300 million in
2004, up 20 percent from 1999, according to state media.
