Almost 5,000 dogs killed in Chinese anti-rabies campaign

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...d-china-rabies

Does anyone think it is right to kill so many dogs because of five human deaths when they could have been vaccinated?

The Chinese have a habit of this, it was not all that long ago they took it upon themselves to shoot every sparrow they saw only to find themselves overrun with insects and beset with crop failure.

As for the subject at hand its a difficult one, it goes without saying that sterilisation and vaccination would be preferable from an animal welfare standpoint. We have eradicated rabies on the ground here but from a geographical perspective that was relatively easy for us, certainly not so easy for them. The logistics of capturing and vaccinating hundreds of thousands of feral dogs just in one province of China would be an undertaking of epic proportions and the likelyhood of long term success is questionable.

Good topic, I tip my hat to you

Thank you for your kind words about it being a good topic.

Anyhow, according to the article, 100,000 dogs were vaccinated in the city's anti-rabies campaign, so if they could vaccinate that many, why not them all? If they could catch the ones they killed, they could quite easily have vaccinated them as well.

[Pereg finally had her rabies shot yesterday as I had to wait for the Local Authority Vet to turn up to give it to her - private vets are not permitted to give them.]

I too noticed that, there is not enough information to speculate on why the killings took place. There is nothing given in terms of the number of domestic to feral animals involved and how many were thought to be infected or at significant risk of being infected. Given China's record regarding our four legged friends it is perhaps equally as interesting in this case that the shootings were well in the minority.