Pet owners panic over poison dog call

Chinese dog owners are in a panic after an online article calling on the public to poison unleashed pet dogs once again brought the country’s war over dogs in the spotlight.

Police in Futian district of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, told Nandu Daily that they have stepped into a case in which sausages with fishhook appeared at a residential community in Yitian village.

Other pet owners also expressed concern after an article published by Sina Weibo user “Mr. Zizhu Zhang” has been flooding social media platforms since last week. In the story, the author suggests putting isoniazid, an antibiotic used for the treatment of tuberculosis, in food to poison unleashed pet dogs.

The article has quickly spread on the internet and won the support of parents and dog haters.

The article came as the country’s second-largest rabies vaccine maker was found to have violated national drug standards since April 2014. It sent shockwaves over death from rabies.

China has the second largest number of reported rabies cases in the world, with an average of over 2,000 deaths reported each year in the past decade, the World Health Organization’s website said.

Some supporters said although the method is radical, it will force dog owners to tether their dogs, since people are important than dogs.

However, the article faces strong opposition from dog lovers, who claim that the violent tactic will trigger conflicts.

Mr Zizhu Zhang’s article was removed on Thursday afternoon due to user claims of “illegal content.” A search of the key word isoniazid on China’s e-commerce platforms shows no related product.

“Pets are private assets and should be protected by law. It is illegal to poison dogs and can also threaten other animals, even people,” Zhang Xinnian, a Beijing-based lawyer, told the Global Times.

Worldwide experience shows it is not effective to control the number of street dogs by killing them, as they will move from one place to another, while dog owners will buy new pets and continue raising them the previous way, Yao Yue, director of the World Animal Protection canine program, told the Global Times.

Yao noted that large-scale poisoning of dogs will also harm immunity to rabies.

Wang Yuedan, an immunology expert at Peking University Health Science Center, told news site thepaper.cn that isoniazid is a prescription medicine and will be poisonous when abused. Adverse reactions of this drug include allergies, injury to the liver and nervous system.

Zhang suggests that dog owners practice selfdiscipline so that their dogs will not become a barrier to – even a victim of – society.