On particularly cold days, the homeless puppies of china’s Jiulongjiang forest park will bark until this canteen stove is lit by workers, and then spend hours huddled around it for warmth. China has an estimated 130 million street dogs who are subjected to a policy of extermination in most cities (including live burial). many of the dogs are abandoned when owners move into high rise buildings that either don’t have room or don’t allow the animals. Having dogs as companion animals was only recently made legal in china, as it was considered a bourgoise pastime by Mao Zedong, who saw compassion for non human animals as counter revolutionary. it remains illegal to keep a dog taller than 35 centimeters in the cities, though this law is increasingly being defied. Attitudes towards animal welfare in china are changing as a growing urban middle class has seen more people wanting to keep dogs as companions. that said, it is still common for dogs to be beaten to death in the streets — often by police officers and in broad view of young children — as no animal welfare or cruelty laws yet exist in the country. forbes/sites/michaeltobias/2012/11/02/animal-rights-in-china/ theguardian/world/2009/jun/16/china-plans-animal-welfare-law
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 13:18:50 +0000