Toddler mauling in China prompts crackdown on dogs, rekindles debate over pet etiquette

A brutal dog attack in which an off-leash Rottweiler mauled a two-year-old girl has reignited a debate over dog-walking etiquette and what to do about stray canines in China, with rumors about local governments ordering the mass trapping of unattended dogs.

A video of the mauling, which happened on October 16, went viral on Chinese social media last week. Recorded by a security camera in a residential complex in Chongzhou, a city in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, the footage begins with a large black Rottweiler wandering in the neighborhood, unleashed, and its owner nowhere to be seen.

The dog sprints toward a child and her mother the moment they walk out of an apartment building. The parent tries to ward off the aggressor, but it manages to skirt around her and knock over the girl.

As the attack continues, a white Labrador — also unleashed — walks by and watches. Eventually, a street cleaner and a bystander successfully intervene, driving away the Rottweiler with a broom and large stick. The clip ends with the distressed mother sitting on the ground while clutching her injured child and crying for help.

According to local Chinese media, the girl was rushed to the hospital with more than 20 puncture wounds over her body, with the most severe stretching about 8 centimeters. The assault also caused a tear in her right kidney and a rib fracture. On Monday, the child was transferred out of the critical care unit to a regular patient room for further treatment.

In a statement on October 17, local authorities in Chongzhou said they had seized the Rottweiler and detained its owner — who was identified and summoned by police officers the day after the attack — as part of an ongoing investigation into the matter.

Misdirected anger

Dogs are popular in China, and the affection for them as pets is particularly intense among Chinese millennials. According to reports on China’s pet industry, as of last year, there were 51.2 million pet dogs in China’s urban households, nearly double the count in 2012.

But as dog ownership has grown, so has the intensity of debates over what restrictions should be enacted. Every now and then, Chinese social media explodes with reactions to dog news. The Rottweiler incident, once again, has placed focus on an issue that has long divided opinion.

Many condemned the dog’s owner for letting the animal roam freely and called for him to be charged for the victim’s injuries. Some questioned why Rottweilers aren’t on the list of banned dog breeds in Sichuan, as they are blacklisted in cities like Beijing and Shanghai for their large size and physical strength.

While the Rottweiler responsible for the attack was a pet off-leash, some said that its threatening behavior reminded them of aggressive stray dogs on Chinese streets. As online discussions about the incident progressed, voices urging action against free-roaming dogs gained wider resonance — and reached the ears of some local officials.

In the past week, several Chinese cities announced they would tighten control of dogs, especially strays, while reiterating the importance of “civilized dog ownership.” On October 21, the local government in Guangyuan, a city in Sichuan Province, said that as part of a one-week campaign, one of its teams had caught 71 free-roaming dogs and sent them to a shelter for “centralized management.”

In one gruesome case, however, two students at a vocational school in Sichuan were caught on film killing a dog in their dorm building. In another instance, a security guard at a university in Liaoning Province was suspended after beating a beloved on-campus stray to death.

Meanwhile, on Chinese social media, there has been a string of posts claiming that landlords or community committee members broke into people’s houses and forcibly took away their pet dogs. It’s unclear how the captured dogs were handled afterwards.

According to Peter J. Li, an animal policy and law scholar at the University of Houston-Downtown and author of Animal Welfare in China, such violence toward loose dogs was unwarranted.

“It is humans or the owners to blame, not the dogs,” Li told The China Project. “Therefore, measures to correct the problem should focus on humans, not on dogs. It was the absence of the owners and the fact that the dogs were not attended to or leashed, a problem created by the owner, that led to the disastrous situation. Blaming the dogs and victimizing stray dogs are irresponsible, ineffective, and are a sign of incompetence.”

On Weibo, the indiscriminate capture — and potential culling — of stray dogs has sparked an outcry, with animal lovers calling for more humane measures, such as adoption and neutering. A handful of celebrities also joined the online protest, including comedian and internet personality Yáng Dí 杨迪, singer-songwriter Xuē Zhīqiān 薛之谦, and actress Chén Qiáoēn 陈乔恩.

China’s stray dog problem

According to data from the World Health Organization, China has about 40 million stray dogs, which account for 20% of the global total. As in most other countries, the problem is caused by humans, Li noted, adding that while some loose dogs are accepted into shelters and private homes, most live a life of uncertainty and danger.

“Dog abandonment is a serious concern,” said Li, who also serves as a consultant for Humane Society International on issues and collaborative programs with China. “Stray dog and stray cats have been targets of the country’s dog and cat meat traders who operate largely illegally, and have been targets of individuals who torture animals for videos circulated on China’s social media platforms.”

Although most of China’s stray dogs live with humans in peace, complaints about dog attacks and exposure to rabies over the years have triggered calls for the animals to be brought under control. To address the problem of feral dogs on the street, city officials in China have, through their dog management policies, prohibited dog abandonment and called for responsible pet ownership.

But there’s more they can do to effectively control overpopulation of stray dogs, Li said, citing measures like mass sterilizations of rural dogs and clamping down on unlicensed and illegal breeding operations.

Dog culls, however, are not a solution, Li stressed. “Public killing of stray dogs or problem dogs creates a bad image for the communities concerned and is indicative of the incompetence of the local authorities, besides imposing cruelty on the society, particularly the country’s young people,” he said.

Across the country, grassroots rescue groups have also worked tirelessly to improve the lives of loose dogs. In addition to removing the strays to shelters, vaccinating them, and providing veterinary services, these organizations also play a paramount role in educating the public about dog behavior and the best and safest way to approach a stray.

But their contribution is yet to be recognized by local authorities, Li said. “Most of these groups are not officially registered due to the draconian registration rules. Without an official status, these groups have a hard time raising funds to care for the stray and to vaccinate them,” he said, adding that instead of working on their own, these organizations and local governments can collaborate on many initiatives. For example, by assisting and offering incentives to animal protection groups, animal hospitals, and other facilities, local governments can expand de-sexing services to under-served communities, especially in rural areas.

China has no animal cruelty law that offers protection for pets. While each city has regulations regarding pet registration and upkeep, these are loosely enforced, causing conflict between dog owners and other residents.

While China has some laws addressing the protection of farmed and wild animals, it doesn’t have a comprehensive piece of legislation to ensure the well-being of all animals, including pets. In 2009, a team of legal scholars published an expert draft of an Animal Cruelty Law of China, which could see serious violators end up in jail. But since then, despite mounting calls for the proposal to be updated and passed, no progress has been made.

There are a few obstacles in the way. “First, there lacks a political determination on the part of the national authorities to adopt an anti-cruelty law. Second, there is strong resistance among China’s policy elites, born in the 1950s and 1960s, who do not see nonhuman animals in the same way as China’s younger generations,” Li said. “Third, there is a strong resistance from the economic and business interests, particularly livestock production and other animal-related business interests. who fear an anti-cruelty law would increase their operation costs and even drive some of their productive activities out of operation.”