A DOG slaughter campaign in Cixi of Zhejiang Province has caused an uproar on the Internet.

The cull was the result of an outbreak of rabies in the city, which killed six people in two months.

Fourteen people have died of rabies in Cixi this year, one-fourth of the total cases in Zhejiang Province. Rabies is a fatal disease and the top killer among epidemic diseases in China.

Ma Fuyong, a spokesman for the Disease Control Centre of Cixi was quoted by local newspapers as saying that prior to this outbreak Cixi had not had a rabies case in 10 years.

Cixi, a city of 1 million inhabitants, has 80,000-100,000 dogs within its borders. Around 50 dog-bite cases were reported every day last year. This year the number tripled, with the centre receiving 150-200 requests for rabies vaccinations every day.

The first rabies case occurred in February when an eight-year-old girl was bitten by an infected dog and died in Du'ao Village of Cixi. More deaths followed until experts determined there was an outbreak of rabies.

After the SARS and bird flu crises, people were very cautious of infectious diseases and a dog-bite was enough to cause panic.

The city government gave orders to have all the unlicensed and unrestrained dogs destroyed. The city stopped issuing dog licenses during the slaughter. Eighty per cent of the city's dogs were killed within weeks. The killing was done in simple and crude ways, by a "dog-catching team" striking dogs with iron rods.

Netizens posted pictures of the slaughter on the web, calling Cixi the "town of death." A public letter from the Beijing Animal Protection Association to the mayor of Cixi was widely quoted on the web, calling for humane treatment of animals and harmonic co-existence of humans and animals.

The letter cited Beijing, which contains 500,000 dogs without a single case of rabies, thanks to the municipal government's active involvement. The Beijing municipality held legal consulting conferences, trying to regulate dog administration legally, eliminating violence in the practice.

Netizens accused the local government of Cixi for not taking effective control methods beforehand, while shifting the responsibility to dog owners.

Dog catching team

There have been criticisms of the high dog licensing fee in urban China. In the Ningbo area, which includes Cixi, the dog registration fee is 3,000 yuan (US$361) and the annual renewal is 1,000 yuan (US$121).

"The method aimed at controlling the number of dogs, actually had the opposite result," Zhou Aimin, an expert in epidemic disease said. "Ordinary people won't spend so much money on this."

This resulted in the large number of unlicensed dogs in cities. Vaccination of these un-licensed dogs is not under control of the animal administration, which triggered the outbreak of rabies.

In Shanghai, within the outer-ring road, an annual dog licence costs 2,000 yuan (US$241), and 1,000 yuan (US$120) further out. The number of "black (unlicensed) dogs" is estimated to be up to eight times higher than the 100,000 registered dog population. Shanghai has had one or two rabies cases every year so far, mainly in the far suburbs.

The police have adopted the attitude that all unlicensed dogs should be killed. Dog-catching teams patrol the streets occasionally and residents can report unlicensed dogs by telephone. "A phone number of the dog catching team was published on the community BBS," said Song Haotian, a resident in a large community in suburban Shanghai's Xinzhuang area. "The message suggested that if we feel bothered by dogs in the neighbourhood, we can dial the number and have the dogs caught."

The dispute between dog lovers and people who object to the misconduct of pets has gone on for years. In some communities, angry residents put poison on the roadside, killing walking dogs.

"I heard people making the threat, though they may not really carry it out," Song said. She did feel bothered by dogs in the community. "Sometimes I see dog owners brush their pet on public grassland. The dog hair just flies in the air."

Others complained about babies frightened by dog barking at night. And many people have experienced encountering unleashed dogs. "The elevator door opened and a huge dog rushed out," complained a Shanghai woman, "I just couldn't get away."

Worry about rabies

The successful control of rabies in Shanghai didn't result just from people's fear of dogs, but also from effective immunity. "It is common sense to get vaccinated if you are bitten by a dog," said a local woman surnamed Min. Min was bitten by her own pet recently as she attempted to rescue the unleashed dog from a traffic accident.

Knowing that she should have the first rabies injection within 24 hours after the bite, she looked up the address of the local Epidemic Prevention Station for treatment, where doctors told her to go to the hospital first.

"But it was common sense to go to the Epidemic Prevention Station," Min said. "Your first reaction would be to seek treatment from the station."

Min received timely treatment and the first few injections from the hospital. She saw a form recording all the dog biting cases in the hospital. "I understand that they sent us to the hospital for the convenience of statistic-taking, but it was inconvenient for me."

"Maybe Shanghai people's lives are worth more," she joked, "people are very aware of the rabies risks. I met many people getting vaccinated at the station, quite a number of them were bitten by their own dogs. Everybody took the injections though their pets were vaccinated and not likely to carry rabies."

A staff member from the Shanghai Veterinary Station warned people of the risk of eating dog meat. "You simply can't track where the meat come from," he said. "You have no idea what disease one might catch from it."

A family in Yuyao, a city near Cixi, killed the dog that bit their 11-year-old son in July and ate the meat. The boy died of rabies in the hospital.