Hordes of hounds leashed by new law
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[By Liu Rui/Global Times] |
I do not have a dog myself, nor am I interested in raising one. Why? I'm not rich enough to afford an exquisite pooch, nor so bored I need a plaything, and most importantly, the nastiness and noise make me sick.
That's why I, as well as numerous other urban residents, feel relieved that Shanghai, which has one of the largest populations of both humans and dogs in China, has become the latest to adopt the "one-dog policy."
Taking effect in mid-May, the Shanghai Administrative Regulations on Dog-raising state that each urban household can raise only one dog. The unanimous passing of the bill indicates how severe the consequences of the exponentially expanding dog population are in China's big cities.
Dog ownership has grown rapidly among China's fast-expanding middle class, and official estimates put the dog population in major cities in China at 60 million, including a million in Beijing, and 800,000 in Shanghai, although only a quarter of that number are legally registered.
Some may argue that they have a natural right to keep as many dogs as they like, as long as they can afford it. Kids, house, and dogs after all, are typical parts of families in the developed countries.
However, China, a country which has 1.34 billion people, can not copy the way of life of the US and Europe. People in the developed countries live in houses, but most urban Chinese have to squeeze into tiny apartments, simply because there isn't the space for anything else.
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