Dog Days

Purging man's best friend

Of all the recent crackdowns in China, the one that began last week was probably the strangest. Virtually any dog found trotting through Peking may now be legally drowned, electrocuted, strangled or clubbed to death. Those who do not get rid of their pets before the last week of December will be subject to fines of up to $25, three weeks' wages for an average urban worker. In anticipation of the purge, 200,000 dogs, or half of the city's total, have been slaughtered or exiled to areas outside the city. Some owners have sold their four-legged friends to the state for meat; others have simply eaten their pets.

Peking's authorities have long frowned on dog owning. But over the past decade, says a resident, "the bored children of high officials started the dog craze, and slowly it became trendy." Less slowly, perhaps, dogs began defiling the capital's streets and unsettling its residents. "Dogs run about wildly, causing difficulties' for municipal sanitation," complained a health official. "There are even instances of hooligans training their pets to chase women, children and old people." Only circus troupes, scientific experimenters, police units and foreign residents, all of whom must pay $5 for vaccination and registration, will be permitted to keep their dogs. qed This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.