A national campaign to promote responsible dog ownership is unfolding after the country's health ministry warned that rabies has become the No 1 killer of infectious diseases in the country during the past five months.

The capital city Beijing has begun a two-month campaign on the enforcement of dog ownership regulations over the weekend, aimed at registering all domestic dogs and ensuring their inoculation.

The campaign, launched jointly by the public security and health bureaus, has set up hotlines to publicize information on dog-raising and encourages residents to report rule violations.

The city's dog registration office reported that over 550,000 dogs are registered, but statistics from the Beijing Association of Small Animal Protection show that there are over 1 million dogs in the city.

About 70,000 pet-related injuries have been reported by the city's 45 rabies clinics in the first half of this year, according to the city's health bureau.

In a major step in that direction, Beijing police shut down a local underground dog trade market in Tongzhou District over the weekend and confiscated 79 unregistered and illegally-traded dogs.

A health watchdog in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, is encouraging owners of both registered and unregistered dogs to vaccinate their dogs by offering subsidies to a certain number of them.

Due to high registration and management fees (as high as 16,000 yuan, or US$2,000, for a legal dog identity), only 1,000 dogs of Guangzhou's 50,000 are registered, according to local newspaper New Express.

The city also planned to give an electric identity necklet to every dog in order to track its health information, according to Chen Zhong, dean of the city's Animal Disease Prevention Institute. Earlier, the city ordered the killing of all the rabies-virus-carrying dogs to prevent the virus from further spreading.

Additionally, local health authorities in Shanghai recently issued a public notice to warn against the rising number of dog-related injuries and called for more attention to timely medical treatment once people are bitten.

According to statistics from Shanghai's health bureau, 52,503 dog-bitings were reported in the 28 rabies clinics in the city during the first seven months this year, up 18 per cent from the same period of last year.

More urbanites and rural residents are keeping pets as the standard of living improves, but the lack of enforceable dog ownership regulations and negligence of dog owners have led to a sharp rise in dog-related injuries, says a recent report from the Ministry of Health.

In the first nine months of 2006, the ministry recorded 2,254 rabies infections, up 26.69 per cent from the same period last year, the paper said.

Rabies has become the biggest killer among the 23 most infectious diseases, including AIDS and hepatitis B, for five straight months in China, the report said.

The present campaign has won praise from local residents, who, however, stressed that the solution truly lies in raising the awareness of dog owners.

"Irresponsible dog-raising has not only disturbed neighbourhoods, but also neglected the rights of the pets. Only when every pet-owner has a higher awareness and capacity in pet protection can the problem be solved fundamentally," said Cai Yue, a member of the Beijing Small Animal Protection Association.

Developed countries like the United Kingdom assess the income and family circumstances of its citizens before allowing them to raise a pet, Cai observed.

Source: China Daily