The number of unsolicited stray dogs in Wuxi has increased dramatically, and the dog infestation has hit the city management "pain point".

Recently, a video of a stray dog being beaten with a stick in Wuxi, Jiangsu province has been circulating on the Internet, triggering some domestic pet protection organizations to voice their doubts, resulting in the formation of “support for cleaning up stray dogs” and “against the abuse of stray dogs”. “and other almost opposing viewpoints, in the online public opinion forum formed a heated debate between dog lovers and dog-averse netizens.

Afterwards, it was learned that the black stray dog that was clubbed had chased and bitten passersby many times in the district, and the public had repeatedly asked for a search and arrest to eliminate safety hazards. But the topic of stray dog management, but triggered the legal profession’s general hot discussion.

At present, because of better living conditions, raising a pet dog has gradually become a life choice for many urban families, but due to the low threshold of dog ownership, such as walking the dog without a leash, no cleanup of urine and feces, barking nuisance phenomenon also brings a lot of nuisance to others. A large number of stray dogs abandoned, or abandoned after natural breeding, not only easily become rabies and other diseases spread out of control “hotbed”, these groups of stray dogs more and more in the community, parks, streets and alleys shuttle cause all kinds of safety hazards, urgent need to attract the attention of city managers.

On November 23rd, a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily went to Wuxi City for an in-depth interview.

Dogs incessantly police

The extreme case of an 88-year-old man tripping over a dog leash and dying in Guangzhou in August 2020 seems to be just around the corner.

Similar cases of pet dogs, unowned dogs, and stray dogs injuring people are being repeated in almost every city.

On the evening of August 16, 2020, Ms. Qian, who lives in the Binhu District of Wuxi City, was returning home from work when two stray dogs suddenly came out of nowhere and barked at her. Ms. Qian was about to carefully walk around the wall when one of the stray dogs suddenly rushed up and bit her left leg, she couldn’t get away and could only yell for help.

Fortunately, two passers-by drove the biting dog away with rocks and tree branches. Ms. Qian’s calf was so badly bitten that she received 11 stitches and a rabies vaccine.

Although Ms. Qian wanted to find the owner of the dog to defend her rights, it was much more difficult, and in the end she had to bear the injuries and losses caused by the “dog bite” incident.

At noon on January 15, 2020, Mr. Xia, a citizen of Wuxi, was driving his car through the Xin Gang Bridge tunnel when a stray dog suddenly appeared on the forest road in front of him, and he had to swerve the steering wheel.

As a result of the accident caused by avoiding the stray dog, the repair costs and medical expenses can only be borne by Mr. Xia himself.

According to the Wuxi Municipal Public Security Bureau, there have been more than 17,000 police cases of nuisance, injury, traffic accidents and environmental pollution caused by dogs alone in the city since 2020, 70% of which were related to stray dogs.

“There have been more than 200 police cases of bite and injury caused by stray dogs and unattended domestic dogs. There were more than 160 traffic accidents caused by stray dogs running amok and walking dogs off leash.” Zhou Guoqing, deputy director of the Wuxi Dog Management Working Group Office, said.

In order to make a comparison with the situation in other cities, the reporter also contacted three public security police stations in Nanjing on November 23 to learn more about the situation of sheltering stray dogs, one of which has arrested 205 dogs this year, one has sheltered 151 dogs, and another has sheltered about 70 dogs. Obviously, there is a huge stray dog population behind this number, “If it weren’t for this round of intensive cleaning and sheltering, the stray dogs would be almost out of control.” A police station leader said.

The burden of government bills is staggering

Since November 11, 2020, Wuxi city launched a month of unified action of “walking dogs without leash, not to clean up dog feces”, urban management departments in the main time, the recreational plaza, public green space, neighborhoods and surrounding roads and other areas to carry out strict enforcement, focusing on the promotion of legal dog registration, sheltering of stray dogs and stray dogs without owners and Investigate and deal with illegal and uncivilized dog breeding behavior.

In just 12 days, the city’s law enforcement departments to investigate and correct the dog on a leash, defecation is not cleaned up and other behavior 655, of which the administrative penalty of 471 people, and took in a number of orphaned dogs, stray dogs.

The reason why stray dogs in many cities gradually become a “problem”, first of all, and dog owners abandoned at will, lost pets, and stray dog groups of disorderly breeding and other factors. “If you don’t catch them, you don’t know, but if you catch them, you’ll be shocked!” Wuxi Economic Development Zone temporary dog stay in charge of the Prince Dan introduced, focused on cleaning up and sheltering stray dogs after the explosion of the surprising numbers, the open area had to invest more than 700,000 yuan in the area of construction of a temporary dog stay.

From November 11 to 23 in less than two weeks, the dog stay in the shelter only 612 orphan dogs, stray dogs. “This part of the cost, private forces can not play any role at all, basically only by the government to pay the bill.” Wang Zidan introduced, based on the municipal dog detention center, but also in the districts of the new dog shelter places, and standardized guidance. All infrastructure, management and technical staff costs, dog equipment and the purchase of dog food and other basic expenses, is another number of small “additional expenses.

On the afternoon of November 23, the “Rule of Law Daily” reporter came to the Wuxi City Economic Development Zone of the temporary dog stay, far away from the noisy barking heard. The reporter came to the new kennel detail count, there are 11 kennels, large and small, almost each filled with all kinds of dogs.

“We are different according to the size of the dogs, respectively shelter, for lactating bitches are additionally shelter, each kennel has sewage pipes, two people every day to clean up, 24-hour real-time monitoring. Wang Zidan introduced to the reporter.

“What if the stray dogs sent here get sick or die?” In response to the reporter’s question, Prince Dan introduced that although it is a temporary organization, the institute is linked with a veterinary hospital for cooperation, and the veterinary hospital’s professional staff will diagnose and treat sick dogs and carry out epidemic prevention work. If there are any dead dogs, they will be transported to a designated location for harmless treatment in accordance with epidemic prevention requirements. “As the weather is getting colder, we will install warm curtains on the kennels to ensure the safety of the incoming unwanted and stray dogs for the winter.”

“We are planning to build a new modern and standardized kennel off-site, including standardized kennels, training yard, and cruelty-free disposal area.” Mao Aimin, deputy director of the Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center of the Wuxi Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, introduced.

The system lags behind and needs to be improved

The Law Daily reporter deeply felt in the interview that, with the rapid increase in the number of urban pet dogs, the various social problems brought about by dog ownership are becoming more and more serious, and many deep-seated problems have not been fully exposed, nor have they attracted the great attention of the legislation, law enforcement and epidemic prevention departments, highlighting the management of dogs in accordance with the law, source management and comprehensive management has been “imminent”. “.

“Legislation should be strict, this should be a general direction, stray dogs, after all, there is a potential danger to social security and public safety.” Jiangsu rule of law construction research base chief expert, Nanjing University of Technology School of Law Professor Liu Xiaobing that the law and policy provisions to govern stray dogs in line with common sense and rationality, dog lovers should also have self-discipline awareness, to the casual abandonment of certain regulations, and not “want to raise, do not raise can be abandoned at will”, and finally all the The problem is “dumped” to the government to pay the bill.

At present, the provincial level in Jiangsu does not legislate on the management of dogs, but by the municipalities under the jurisdiction of the provinces based on the actual situation through local legislation to solve management problems.

For example, the “Wuxi City Dog Management Regulations”, which came into effect in 2008, stipulates that dogs are subject to compulsory immunization and registration, and no unit or individual is allowed to keep a dog without immunization and registration. It is stipulated that each household is limited to one dog in the key management area for dog breeding, and individuals are prohibited from raising scented dogs and large dogs in the management area.

In 2007 the implementation of the “Nanjing Dog Management Regulations”, the key management areas of dog breeding should comply with the provisions of a detailed list, such as personal dog per household limit of one dog, no scented dogs, large dogs; dogs excrete feces in the open air, the person with the dog should be immediately removed; with dogs out of the house, the dog should be hung dog tags, leash, led by a person with full civil capacity, the length of the leash shall not be Over 1.5 meters, you must also obey traffic laws and actively avoid pedestrians and vehicles.

However, the actual effect of such detailed legislative provisions is not ideal everywhere. There is still no means and method to effectively manage disorderly breeding, unlicensed breeding, and all kinds of disturbing and uncivilized behaviors, and illegal breeding of large dogs and scaly dogs still goes on without supervision in many places.

Building Consensus for Civilized Dog Breeding

To fundamentally manage the city’s “dog problem”, it seems that the key point is not whether or not to introduce various “dog restrictions”, or just accommodating, allowing a variety of violations, but whether or not to seize the practical, interest-balancing “The key few strokes”, practical regulation of dog management from breeding, trading, breeding, epidemic prevention and other aspects, and even the various types of uncivilized, and even the responsibility of the dog attack incident, and so on the detailed requirements of a larger range of social consensus, the formation of civilized dog more conscious.

The reporter also noted that as early as November 2004, based on the management of administrative fees and other issues, the Jiangsu Provincial Government included the canine management fee as one of the items involving the cancellation of administrative licensing fees. But at present, many provinces still keep the “dog management fee” fee directory, many places also strictly carry out the “annual inspection” system of dog management. Obviously, the “leniency” of the dog breeders will not lead to the “loose management” of dog management? There is some room for revision of the system.

The original purpose of abolishing the dog management fee is to reduce the burden of the public. However, with more and more dog-owning families, there are more problems such as urban sanitation, rabies prevention, dog injuries and other problems, especially the illegal breeding of large dogs, spirited dogs and other noble consumption issues, more stringent management should be implemented. “Community properties should be given more auxiliary management responsibilities,” Liu Xiaobing believes.

Reporters in Nanjing lawyer group issued about stray dog management issues after the discussion of the prompt, quickly caused the lawyer community hot discussion. The most concentrated issue is the problem of pet dogs urinating and defecating in the community, and the problem of uncontrolled breeding of stray dogs. “Stray dogs are very wild when they are outside the group, and can form a wolf pack-style collective hunting behavior, so they are very easy to attack the elderly and children.” Lawyer Xie Shiqiu believes that we should learn mature foreign experience, regular capture and placement to rescue stations.

“More people should be made aware that pet ownership is not a spur of the moment or following a trend, but a responsibility through propaganda and education.” Lawyer Yan Rui believes that legislation can be passed to clarify the responsibilities that abandoned pets will face. “Strict implementation of the dog registration system, annual audit, if lost or accident to be filed, to increase the punishment for abandoning pets, increase the prevention, sterilization and shelter of stray animals, encourage residents to adopt.” Lawyer Wang Xi believes.

The reporter also learned that Wuxi is actively promoting intelligent dog management system, organization and coordination of 132 authorized veterinary hospital into the community to carry out dog information registration, electronic dog license application and smart dog license issuance of “one-stop” service, a total of 29,163 new registered dogs, audit the issue of dog license 12,791. At the same time, 132 pet clinics have been authorized to act as immunization authorization points, and more than 35,000 rabies dogs have been immunized so far this year.

“Stray dog management is one of the main contents of the modernization of the city’s governance capacity, which should highlight the humanistic care and scientific concept.” Yang Dengfeng, professor of law at Nanjing Normal University, believes that killing stray dogs with infectious diseases or aggressive towards people, law enforcement should do audio and video synchronization forensics work, and restrict the classification and disposal of sheltered dogs under strict conditions.

The reporter also learned that many cities in Jiangsu province have already paid full attention to the various management problems behind the control of stray dogs in Wuxi, and some have already started research.