Jiangmen’s dog ban sparked controversy

This "dog ban order" that has caused great controversy refers to a recent joint decision by five departments of Jiangmen City Public Security Bureau, Agriculture Bureau, Urban Comprehensive Administration, Industry and Commerce Bureau, and Health Bureau. The "Notice on Strengthening Dog Management in Urban Areas" was issued.

The "Notice" clarifies that "the urban area of ??Jiangmen City (including Pengjiang District, Jianghai District, and Xinhui District) is a prohibited dog breeding area." All types of dogs are not allowed to be raised in the prohibited area. If you need to raise dogs due to special circumstances, you must obtain approval from the public security department, obtain a "Dog Breeding Permit", and go to the agriculture and animal husbandry department to have the dogs vaccinated before they can be kept (tethered).

The "Notice" stipulates that "Dogs are prohibited from entering all public places and roads in the urban area. All dogs raised without approval must be disposed of or sent to the police by themselves before August 10, 2011. Hand it over to the designated agriculture and animal husbandry department for processing.”

The “Notice” also stipulates that starting from August 26, Jiangmen City’s joint dog management law enforcement officers will inspect public places in prohibited areas. Dogs raised in violation of regulations will be uniformly confiscated and killed.

So, what are the special circumstances under which you can keep a dog?

According to the provisions of the "Notice", the warehouse must have a value of more than 5 million yuan, or special places such as oil depots, water plants, power plants, dangerous goods warehouses, etc. can apply to the public security department to keep dogs, "but They must be kept in captivity and not allowed to be released into the wild”, and “Individuals who are currently in the restricted area cannot apply to raise dogs.”

The promulgation of the "Notice" has aroused widespread concern among citizens. Some citizens said that the problem of urban dog-raising is difficult to solve for a while, and the introduction of a "dog ban" will help create a good urban environment. However, some citizens, especially dog ??owners, have called for legal dog-raising.

Ms. Chen, who lives in Xinhui City, told reporters that her family has been raising dogs for several years. The whole family loves the pet dog very much and almost treats it as a family member. Now the whole family cannot accept the "dog ban" that says they are not allowed to keep dogs. In the past few days, she had not been able to sleep well at night, thinking about whether to send the puppy to a relative's house in the countryside to escape...

Relevant departments revised management measures

Faced In response to public doubts, on the morning of August 3, personnel from the five departments in Jiangmen City who made relevant regulations met for a long discussion and officially announced the decision to "accept public opinion to improve urban dog management measures" that day.

In the decision, five departments of Jiangmen City made preliminary three decisions: First, it is strictly prohibited to bring dogs into parks, squares, streets, commercial blocks, schools, kindergartens, shopping malls, hotels, stations, and docks Wait for urban public places;

The second is to persuade dogs that appear in public places to be sent to non-prohibited areas for breeding;

The third is to regulate dog breeding , Reduce the occurrence of incidents that disturb people and hurt people. If a dog injures someone, the dog owner must bear all the injured person’s medical expenses, nutritional expenses, and lost work time.

After the new regulations were promulgated, some people believed that this actually allowed citizens to keep dogs according to regulations. Some residents who have dogs said that they were finally relieved after having been worried for many days.

Why did Jiangmen City issue a strict “dog ban”? In this regard, the explanation given by the competent authorities is because of rabies problems and hygiene issues.

According to data provided by the Jiangmen Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the problem of dogs hurting people in Jiangmen City has become increasingly prominent in recent years. On the other hand, pet dogs defecate everywhere in public places, and most dog owners do not deal with their pets' feces, which also brings a lot of confusion to urban management.

Public opinions should be widely solicited when issuing political orders

Although the "dog ban" has been revised, the issues behind the incident are worth thinking about.

A Weibo survey titled “Jiangmen’s dog ban, please express your position as a human being!” showed that 477 of the 550 people who voted were firmly opposed to the “dog ban”. Accounting for 87; only 13 people agreed, accounting for 2, and the others expressed neutrality. Most people hope that the government will introduce more humane and operational regulations on dog breeding.

Some people believe that today’s society has diverse interests and the corresponding social management has become more complicated. Even if the government wants to issue a "dog ban", it should widely solicit public opinion.

Wang Xuyang, a senior lawyer at Guangdong Yi Chunqiu Law Firm, said that the problem of urban dog breeding is not only in Jiangmen, but also widespread across the country. But this is ultimately a "people" problem, not a dog problem. The government should strictly manage dog owners and improve various systems instead of banning dogs.