beijing kills hundreds of pets to fight sars

serum · May 23, 2003

http://www.rense.com/general37/pets.htm

China Pets Fast Becoming

Victims Of SARS Panic

By Gady A. Epstein

The Baltimore Sun

5-7-3

BEIJING -- In a grim reflection of this city's determination to subdue the SARS epidemic, authorities in protective suits are killing dogs, in some cases by beating them, while their owners are locked away in hospital wards as suspected or confirmed SARS cases.

Some pet owners, fearing that their animals could carry SARS, are taking grisly measures with their own dogs and cats, or abandoning them to a grim fate, since stray animals are also being put down by authorities. Still others, fearing a violent end for their pets at the hands of authorities or neighbors, are pre-emptively asking veterinarians to euthanize their animals.

Wang Xiaojiang felt she had no choice last week but to leave town for southern China, escaping not SARS but the intense animal anxiety that she feared might claim the lives of her two Pekinese, Meimei and Pangpang, and her 13-year-old mutt, Wawa.

"I was afraid that if some of my neighbors got SARS or were suspected of getting SARS, that my pets would be taken away by authorities and killed," Wang said, speaking by cellular phone from the winter apartment in Shenzhen that she shares with her husband. "The pets have brought us a lot of joy, so now when we have difficulties, I would never give them up. I would never surrender the pets to the SARS situation."

There is no proof that dogs and cats can spread SARS, but some local authorities and state media accounts have given the impression that domestic animals are a SARS threat.

Local government officials said that both abandoned dogs and pets of owners suspected to have SARS will be killed, and in some districts, the message has been more vague.

"In remote districts, they sent out propaganda trucks saying you better dispose of your own animals," said Yin Tieyuan, a veterinarian at Sai Jia Animal Hospital in Beijing. "On that day people came here [trying to euthanize their pets], because they were afraid if they didn't do it, they would be forced to kill their pets painfully."

Yin said he turned away his would-be clients, telling them their dogs were healthy and shouldn't be killed, but he said many owners either searched for a willing vet or ultimately abandoned their pets. He said misleading accounts on state media have increased the anxiety.

One expert in virology said on a nationally televised show that animals may spread the virus, but the expert made no distinction between farm animals and pets: "You shouldn't broadcast something so irresponsible,"Yin said.

And a story publicized last week by both television and newspapers wrongly asserted that three ill dogs found in a western district of Beijing -- two of them foaming at the mouth -- were suspected of having SARS, Yin said.

The government should step in to correct the misinformation, as Hong Kong officials did early in that city's outbreak, Yin said.

"When people first started to abandon their pets, the health minister in Hong Kong came out to clarify that these pets have nothing to do with SARS, and very quickly people stopped abandoning their pets," Yin said. "But so far Beijing government hasn't come up with any kind of announcement like this, so people are still throwing out their pets, still abandoning them."

Stories of animal hysteria range from state media reports of the abandonment of 183 dogs in the southeastern city of Hangzhou, to crueler examples relayed by Beijing animal advocates, such as pet owners crushing their own animals under the wheels of their cars on back roads.

"A lot of people have done terrible things they should never have done," said Zhang Luping, whose Beijing shelter in the past two weeks has received 20 to 30 abandoned animals, far more than normal. "People are spreading this news to each other that pets may get infected, so they are spreading this idea that if you have pets you should do something about it, essentially that means to kill them."

The SARS pet panic has been jarring to many owners and activists, who have seen attitudes about pets gradually change over the past 20 years. One-child families, childless young couples and an elderly generation no longer living with extended families have all built a growing market for pets, but SARS shows that many owners still have much to learn about how they should be treated.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/07/...2280324844.html

SARS drives owners to abandon, kill pets in China

May 8 2003

Fear the flu-like SARS virus can be spread by dogs and cats is driving hundreds of people in China's capital to abandon or even kill their pets, animal rights organisations and veterinarians said.

Household pets came under scrutiny after the World Health Organisation blamed Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome on a new form of the coronavirus, which causes the common cold and probably jumped to man from animals.

But animal rights groups and scientists say there is no evidence pets can carry the virus, which has killed 219 people in China, infected 4,560 and spread panic in the world's most populous nation.

"Some communities are demanding residents dispose of all their pets, even kill them all," Zhang Li, country director of International Fund for Animal Welfare, told Reuters Television.

"There is no government order that requires people to do that. These community areas have put up such rules without authorisation."

Chinese adopt extreme attitudes to man's furry friends, who number about one million in the capital, Beijing.

Some pampered pets enjoy life as status symbols along with gold watches and sports cars in a society marching toward greater wealth.

But some apartment buildings in Beijing have posted notices asking owners to take stairs instead of elevators when going out with their pooches, to walk them only in the late evening or early morning and to put "doggie masks" on their pets.

A hotline run by Beijing Oriental Precious Animal Hospital has been ringing constantly with frightened owners asking about SARS, one veterinarian told Reuters.

Some have asked pet clinics to put their animals down if they get common respiratory illnesses instead of treating them, he said. One hospital has put down about eight dogs from two months to six years old in the last month.

Chinese media reported some owners or their neighbours had beaten dogs and cats to death.

Much of the confusion stems from whether or not animals, particularly fowl, can be incubators of SARS.

In late April in the southern province of Guangdong, where SARS first appeared, officials confiscated endangered species meat served as a delicacy and arrested 1,428 people.

Guangdong folk are famous for their omnivorous appetites and some experts believe SARS came from wild game eaten there.

But not all pet owners are succumbing to panic.

Zhu Jun, a glamorous television presenter in her late 30s, said her scientist father had demanded she kill her three cats for fear they could harbour the deadly virus.

Zhu, who has a degree in biology from the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing, acknowledges coronaviruses can live in cats and dogs.

"But the link between SARS virus and the animals is not clear," she said. "They've got to give me convincing evidence that my cats are prone to the disease. Otherwise, I'll never kill them just out of fear."

serum · May 23, 2003

related article

http://www.voice4dogs.org/tsinc.htm _

The Dogs and Cats slaughtered in China

_

Massive, systematic cruelty, and extremely inhumane killing methods are used, involving severe panic, trauma and needless prolonged suffering. Dogs are tied up short by a thin wire metal tight around the neck so that they can hardly move, then stabbed in the groin area, blood begins to pour. With every move, the wire cuts deeper into their throats as they struggle in terror and pain desperately trying to escape in a pool of blood.

_

_ _ photosHSUS/Karreman _ _ _ _ _

The lucky ones bleed to death before being skinned, but often dogs are alive and fully conscious dying slow excruciating indescribable deaths. As each dog is killed other dogs can hear the screams and cries. All that matters to the butchers is that this method of slaughter causes least damage_ to the dogs fur - preserving its market value.

German Shepherd dogs are the most commonly killed dogs in China, as their fur resembles the fur of wild animals such as coyote or raccoon - the same courageous and noble breed that guides the blind and does search and rescue, these intelligent and loyal dogs are being bred in huge numbers in the north of China. _

Cats fare no better than dogs in China, the cats are killed by being hung by the neck from a piece of rope that tightens as the cats struggle causing them to eventually suffocate. Sometimes the cats are hung from a wire while water is poured down their throats through a hose until they drown.

Long haired cats are kept as pets in China, yet ironically an estimated 500,000 short haired cats, mainly ginger or tabby coloured are raised for their pelts, estimated figures are that about a half million cats are killed each season from October to February. Cat fur is hard to distinguish from other furs once it has been dyed - President of a German company prominent in the cat fur trade.

_ Innocent cats, many of them stolen pets, are slowly and cruelly strangled while other cats watch, all await the same fate

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serum · May 23, 2003

http://www.voice4dogs.org/images/dog_p17.jpg'> + http://www.voice4dogs.org/images/untitledcts.jpg'> = http://www.voice4dogs.org/images/Chews.jpg'>

made from dog and cat parts

Dick Quickwood · May 23, 2003

chop suey

serum · May 23, 2003

an oriental fast food made up for white people?

ubejinxed · May 23, 2003

http://www.voice4dogs.org/images/untitledcts.jpg'>

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Dick Quickwood · May 23, 2003

lets just say the "chicken" in your chop suey, well, you know....

May 23, 2003

China has another view on dags and cats the western civilisation.

It has nothing to do with Sars.

yoshy · May 23, 2003

Originally posted by Europe
China has another view on dags and cats the western civilisation.

It has nothing to do with Sars.

sounds like it ^^pretty sad

Wrongo Sal · May 23, 2003

:( :mad:

"don't shoot it, it's a house cat"

Rodney Trotter · May 23, 2003

People form different cultures eat cats and dogs. So what? If you went to some parts of india and ate beef you'd be lynched on the spot.

On a side note, I just heard on the news that they have now traced the SARS virus to cat meat. GO CHINA!

!@#$% · May 23, 2003

they have NO CLUE where it came from

now some scientists are speculating it originated in space

don't jump to any conclusions

from CNN.com

LONDON (Reuters) -- Could SARS have come from outer space? Some scientists think so.

Instead of jumping from an unknown animal host in southern China, a few researchers in Britain believe the virus that has baffled medical experts descended from the stratosphere.

"I think it is a possibility that SARS came from space. It is a very strong possibility," Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe told Reuters.

The director of the Cardiff Center for Astrobiology in Wales and a proponent of the theory that life on Earth originated from space, admits the theory defies conventional wisdom.

But in a letter published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday he and his colleagues argue there are too many puzzling aspects about the respiratory illness that has killed nearly 700 people and infected more than 3,800 to dismiss the idea.

ridiculous.

raisone · May 23, 2003

man, the fuckers. Causing a slow death like that deserves a fucking beating. I'd love te grab one a those fuckers by the throat and start poundin them in the fuckin teeth intill they choke on they're own blood. fuckers.

grittylifer · May 23, 2003

i would seriously kill someone that tried to do that to my cat.

give a fuck about sars. as long as i dont take my own life im gravy.

serum · May 23, 2003

the article doesn't mention anything about eating pets just forcing pet owners to kill their pets because they might carry sars. if some characters came to my house trying to kill my pets it would be on.

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.sE. · May 24, 2003

I seen this shit on TV bout people in China eating cats in restaurants. They boiled a cat and skinned it. That shit was disgusting. But I guess that shows how we have a different outlook on pets in the US. thank god.

May 25, 2003

ICED OUT KITTEN SLAUGHTERISTS REPPIN

metallix · May 25, 2003

Originally posted by ctrl+alt+del
ICED OUT KITTEN SLAUGHTERISTS REPPIN

Smart · May 25, 2003

Let's invade!

Rectum · May 25, 2003

an animal who is not willing to die for me is not fit to live

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beijing kills hundreds of pets to fight sars

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