Husky And Dog License

Husky (called 哈士奇 in China) is the most searched pet on Baidu.com today. In fact, Husky always ranks No.1 in this search engine's pet category.

But as I was digging around to find materials for today's post, I came across something that really shocked me.  

To keep a dog legally in China you need to register the dog and pay a licensing fee every year! And if the police finds your dog during a "dog sweep", you need to produce the right paper on the spot or the dog will be captured and sent to the compound to be destroyed, or sometimes killed on the spot.

(http://jz.dahe.cn/news/UploadFiles_8026/200608/20068416528913.jpg)

Read more about the poor dogs in this following story from The New York Times:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9D03E3D6133DF93AA25750C0A9679C8B63

The fee structures vary according to the location. In Beijing, the current schedule is 1000 RMB for the initial license and 500 RMB renewal fee every year afterwards. The outer and more rural areas are cheaper (but the these cheaper licenses may not save your pet's life during a dog sweep). Shanghai is much more expensive and is 2000 RMB a year.(http://www.andbb.com/ShowPost.asp?ThreadID=164)

The application requires you to bring the dog and it's 1-inch photo to the local police station after you fill out the relevant forms that you have obtained from the community management center. However, if the dog is taller than 35 cm, it gets confiscated right away on the spot. There are also strict restrictions on when and where you can walk your dog; if the dog is caught outside the allowed time or areas, it's termination with no negotiation.

The blue one is the Dog License. I don't know what the red one is. Maybe you need both to keep the dog.

(http://www.ep2net.com/blog/article.asp?id=220&page=4)

This licensing fee is actually very expensive for a lot of people, so according to non-official sources, the ratio of registered dogs to unregistered ones is about 1 to 10. Moreover, most of these "black dogs" are not immunized against Rabies, which poses quite a major health risk to people around them.

"Beijing earns 280 million RMB every year on Dog License" (Chinese)

"Increase in number of black dogs due to expensive license" (Chinese)