Celebrate multi-cultural diversity

Yes, a little off topic, but still.. in the spirit of multi-cultural
celebration!

With it's rapid move from cash poor to cash rich, Asia is also moving from
cooking dogs to keeping them as pets.

China with it's One Child Abortion culture has naturally moved to a One Dog
embrace.

Seems the problem is rabies. Dog owners are not giving them their shots.
Answer? Lower the number of dogs. Yup, it follows logically from their
successful limit the number of humans rule.

Gee, I would have thought giving the dogs their shots would have been the
solution. Otherwise we have fewer dogs running around.. but they are rabid!

Silly me.

link

Beijing families were first restricted to one child, and now the Chinese authorities have set the limit on pets too with its one dog policy.

China's capital will institute a "one dog" policy for each household in nine areas, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.

Xinhua said: "Only one pet dog is allowed per household in the zones, and dangerous and large dogs will be banned. Anyone keeping an unlicensed dog will face prosecution."

China has limited most urban couples to one child and those in the countryside to two since the 1970s in an effort to limit population growth and ease the strain on resources.

Such measures are seen as a clampdown on rabies, which has been on the rise in China. At least 318 people were killed by the disease nationwide in September said Xinhua.

There were 2,651 reported deaths from the disease in 2004, the last year for which data was available.

Only 3 per cent of China's dogs are vaccinated against rabies, which attacks the nervous system and can be fatal.Many people have supported the move, saying it is the only way to contain the disease.