Hu halts dog cull after reading petitions
President Hu Jintao has intervened to end a national crackdown on dogs after reading complaints sent to him from dog owners, sources said yesterday.
HU JINTAO主席在读了请愿书后要求停止打狗
昨天有消息称,胡主席在读了来自狗主们的请愿书以后,已经干涉,要求结束目前全国性的打狗行动。
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Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Hu halts dog cull after reading petitions
JANE CAI
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An abandoned dog at a pound after the round-up. Photo: AP
President Hu Jintao has intervened to end a national crackdown on dogs after reading complaints sent to him from dog owners, sources said yesterday.
One petitioner said Mr Hu's chief secretary had told her the president had read her two petitions, signed by more than 60,000 people, calling for an end to the campaign. She said Mr Hu was unhappy about the complaints and international media coverage of the campaign, and had put a stop to the programme late last month.
A government official confirmed Mr Hu had ordered a halt after reading the letters.
Tens of thousands of dogs have been culled since the eradication campaign began in August. Authorities maintained it was necessary to deal with a rise in the number of rabies cases.
In Beijing, the so-called "civilised dog keeping" campaign began in October and was to have ended in the middle of this month. Under the campaign, dogs taller than 35cm were prohibited from downtown areas and each family was restricted to keeping a single pet dog.
Fines were introduced for owners of dogs that defecated on the street or were found unchained. The move infuriated dog owners. About 500 staged a protest in the capital a month ago against the seizure and killing of the pets.
Beijing authorities announced good results from the campaign on Monday, saying more than 550,000 dogs had been registered and vaccinated against rabies and progress was being made in efforts to find new homes for more than 600 seized or abandoned dogs.
Yu Hongyuan , deputy director of the Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB), told Xinhua only 180,000 dogs had been registered in the city in 2002.
But the official news agency said experts believed there were about ? million dogs in the city, which would mean the authorities' job was only half done.
President Hu Jintao has intervened to end a national crackdown on dogs after reading complaints sent to him from dog owners, sources said yesterday.
有消息报道,于昨日国家主席胡锦涛在看过一封狗主人所书的投诉信后,发出干预性命令,要求全国停止打狗运动。
One petitioner said Mr Hu's chief secretary had told her the president had read her two petitions,
signed by more than 60,000 people, calling for an end to the campaign.
请愿者说:胡主席的首席秘书告之其主席已经看了她的两封有超过6万人签字的号召停止打狗运动的请愿书
She said Mr Hu was unhappy about the complaints and international media coverage of the campaign, and had put a stop to the programme late last month.
她说:胡主席对于近期发生的关于打狗运动的事件表示了不满对国际媒体的报道表示的关注,上月已经发出了停止打狗运动的指令。
A government official confirmed Mr Hu had ordered a halt after reading the letters.
有关官方也确认胡在读信后发出了中止令。