China city issues dog management regulation

Harbin City in northeast China on Thursday issued a series of regulations to manage dog breeding in the city, according to the city's public security bureau. The regulations stipulate that each household in the urban areas of Harbin is allowed to keep only one dog, and all dogs should be registered and implanted with digital identification chips. Dogs larger than 55 cm in height and 75 cm in length and violent dogs are forbidden in the urban areas. Residents who own large or violent dogs must relocate their dogs within 60 days. The regulations also require that dog owners pay 300 yuan (50 U.S. dollars) for a dog's registration in the first year, and 200 yuan each year after that. A citizen surnamed Gao said he approved of the new regulations since there are an increasing number of large dogs and dog-attack cases in the city. "Some dogs often defecate randomly in residential communities, and owners often ignore their excretion, which should be punished," said Gao. Other citizens took a dim view of the regulations, saying that the registration fees are too high, and authorities have failed to make progress even though dog control measures have been put forward for many years. There are more than 100,000 pet dogs in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province. Local public security departments have had to deal with over 500 dog attack cases every year. Since the number of dog-related cases has increased gradually, "dog management" has become a difficult problem for the city. The bureau said that, as of Thursday, individuals or units in the city keeping dogs must abide by the regulations or be punished in accordance with the rules.