Impending 2nd dog kill in east China's Shandong Province

[BlackSheep]

I received the following information from The Humane Society International:

In 5 days at the end of July, more than 50,000 dogs were brutally beaten, electrocuted, or shot to death in response to a rabies outbreak in southwestern China. Now, this unimaginable cruelty is set to happen again in the eastern city of Jining.

The Legal Daily, a state-owned newspaper issued by the Ministry of Justice, responded to reports of the killings by blasting local and regional officials. Perhaps anticipating the pressure that many hope the central government will bring to bear upon its provincial counterparts, the newspaper disdained the killings as an "extraordinarily crude, cold-blooded and lazy way for the government to deal with epidemic disease."

Please join Humane Society International and The Humane Society of the United States this Thursday, August 10, for a protest at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. Please help us show China that the world is watching and holding them accountable for their actions prior to the 2008 Olympic games.

We will deliver hundreds of advocates' letters and reaffirm our offer to assist the Chinese government in developing a humane animal control and rabies prevention program for the country. Your participation is crucial to showing China that the global public will not tolerate such acts of cruelty.

Date: This Thursday, August 10
Time:11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Location: Chinese Embassy, 2300 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC
Directions: South of the Connecticut Ave. bridge, near the Woodley Park/Zoo (red line) Metro stop.

Thank you for taking action for the animals!

 

[Lilypad]

Update-

More than 100 people and many of their canine companions gathered in the rain at the event, organized by The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International, to encourage the Chinese government to adopt a more humane and effective approach to combating rabies in the Republic of China's southern provinces.

Wayne Pacelle, HSUS president and CEO, spoke to the crowd before a backdrop of signs reading "Vaccinate: Don't Eradicate," "Compassion, Not Cruelty," and "Respect Life," written in Chinese characters.

"We're here to send a signal," Pacelle said. "It's not just our voice that's being heard. Chinese citizens, and Chinese people throughout the world, are objecting to this mass killing."

A few days earlier, Pacelle sent a formal letter to China's U.S. Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, extending an offer of $100,000 from HSUS and HSI to establish a humane and effective rabies control program in the affected villages in Jining, contingent on an immediate end to the mass dog killing programs.

While the killings have so far been limited to a few locales and provinces, Pacelle said he hopes that the Chinese government will work with The HSUS to substitute mass vaccination programs for such killing programs. "If they were to expand any further on the mass extermination approach, we'd be seeing hundreds of thousands or millions of dogs killed," he said. "We're offering them a way out ... a solution," he added. "It's better for people, for human health and animal welfare."

The slaughter has sparked worldwide condemnation. As a result of an HSI alert that went out a few days before the protest, more than 3,500 letters from concerned individuals all over the world were delivered to the Chinese embassy in Washington.