Xiao Bo did not catch the bus to the school. When he was spotted, he collapsed in a pool of blood, his face unrecognizable, his jaw and ears missing.
At 6:40 a.m. on April 22, Xiao Bo, a second-grade student at Baoguo Road Primary School in Fengjie County, Chongqing, was bitten by three dogs on the way to school and died after the rescue was ineffective. After the initial forensic examination, Xiao Bo died of traumatic shock plus tracheal dissociation.
Medical personnel at the scene (Image source: Guangming Network)
According to the report, the three vicious dogs were raised by a solitary farmer in the same village to guard against thieves. People from the same village said that the three dogs did not tie a rope on weekdays, and not long ago, they had just bitten a dog in the village to death.
There is more than one such tragedy.
In 2013, a 6-year-old girl in Lushun, Liaoning Province, was bitten by a Tibetan mastiff outside a small shop near the community, and her trachea and arteries were bitten off and died on the spot. In the same year, in Zunyi, Guizhou, a 62-year-old man was bitten by two vicious dogs during morning exercise, and dragged 10 meters away, and one arm was bitten out.
How many cases of dogs injuring people? At present, there are no specific statistics, but we can get a glimpse of the annual wholesale number of rabies vaccines. According to the "Rabies Vaccine Industry Market Research and Analysis Report", in 2019, the market size of China's rabies vaccine industry reached 4.74 billion yuan. Liaoning Chengda's wholesale sales of rabies vaccine visas in 2020 reached 18.686 million, accounting for 54.7% of the total market share.
Of course, this also needs to exclude factors such as pre-exposure prophylaxis, intensive injections, and other animal injuries, and according to the most conservative estimates, the volume is still not to be underestimated.
2016-2018 China's rabies vaccine industry development scale (data and image source: National Bureau of Statistics, Zhongyan Puhua Industry Research Institute)
Contradictions are constantly intensifying. On the one hand, there are one after another cases of dog injuries, which constantly provoke anger in the field of public opinion; on the other hand, indiscriminate retaliation against dogs occurs sporadically everywhere, and it breaks out into a never-ending scolding war between the "hate dog party" and the "dog love party".
Behind people and dogs is the relationship between people, but also the governance dilemma of modern cities.
Text | Wu Tang
This article is reproduced from the WeChat public account "South Wind Window" (ID: SouthReviews), the original text was first published on May 22, 2021, the original title is "Vicious dogs bite dead children, where is the threshold for raising dogs", does not represent the view of the Lookout Think Tank.
1 Intruded space
It happened in Foshan in August 2020. A large white dog chased a puppy wildly, and the leash on the neck was dragged behind him, tripping an old man standing on the side of the road. The old man hit the ground on the forehead, the blood flowed all over the ground, and after being taken to the hospital, the rescue was ineffective and died.
The girl with the white dog, who was only twelve years old, was found to have someone else in the owner of the white dog, and on the same day, the girl led the white dog that the owner had kept on a leash in front of the house to play, but unexpectedly caused this tragedy. The incident was judged to be an accident, and the family of the elderly did not object to this determination.
Surveillance video is uploaded to the Internet, causing a lot of discussion.
In response to this incident, netizens questioned
The common feature of the above incidents is that the direct factors that cause the dogs to injure people are "unchained". Imagine if the owner had restrained the dog's aggressive behavior at all times, the tragedy might not have happened.
Dogs become vicious dogs most often because they have an irresponsible owner.
Many people have heard the saying, "Don't be afraid, our dog doesn't bite." "This is often used by unraveled dog owners to comfort frightened people, but even the most docile dogs encounter stress situations and run the risk of getting out of control."
Xiangyang Cultural and Educational Television Station "Exposure Station" program
Yang Zhen was deeply impressed by this. She was afraid of dogs since she was a child, and in her rural hometown, every household would have a watchdog in the yard. Whenever she walked through the door of her neighbor, she would hear the ferocious barking and the sound of chains clanging as the dogs thrust forward.
After settling in the city, Yang Zhen still harbored a natural fear of dogs. Especially in a small, confined space like an elevator, the dog in the same ride is sometimes not leashed, put on a muzzle, and barks incessantly, which often makes her suffer for a few minutes when the elevator rises.
"There are really too many dogs," she agonized. The public lawn in her neighborhood was supposed to be a place for everyone to rest, relax and play, but now there is a whole stall, and no one dares to go in.
Yang Zhen admits that he is a "very angry person" with dogs. She could understand that the pace of modern life is so fast, people lack effective companionship, feel empty and lonely, and the presence of pets can give comfort to the soul. But she also believes that the threshold for pet ownership is too low, regardless of the annoyance to the neighborhood, the building area can not provide a generous space for pets to move, it is also a kind of harm to them.
She lives in Shanghai, rents an apartment, the average living area is very small, and there are still many neighbors who have large dogs. Yang Zhen did not quite understand their choice, saying: "I often watch American dramas, see them have single-family villas, small gardens, can take dogs to play games on the lawn, for dogs, for other people, are comfortable." ”
But cities with highly dense populations and scarce land are "almost not suitable for dogs to live in," Yang Zhen said, "but it brings a lot of trouble." ”
2 Pet training
Douban's "dog raising persuasion group" has more than 30,000 members, and the introduction introduces the main purpose of the group: "Tell you in advance the difficulties that dogs will encounter, dissuade the impulsive dog raising behavior, and minimize the occurrence of abandonment." ”
As dog owners, they advocate that "there is a threshold for raising dogs".
Someone left a message, "I found that many people who have dogs only want to take, do not want to pay at all, and feel that dogs should not add to their own blockage, rather than trying to find a way to correct." ”
In order to keep dogs, blue whales prepared for a full nine years. To this end, she studied animal cognitive behavior and brain neuroscience during college, helped take care of friends' dogs during winter and summer vacations, paid attention to dog trainer bloggers, and learned to summarize training experience. Before actually picking up her dog home, she also deliberately chose a residence with a wide meadow nearby, and asked for the consent of the landlord and the support of her lover.
Love, training skills, financial energy, it seems that everything is ready. However, six months after actually spending time with the dog, she posted in the dog retirement group, writing: "I'm still tired... Couldn't believe it and blamed myself. ”
As they age, dogs sleep less and more energy. It was the teething period, and it began to look for something to nibble on at home: roll paper, network cable, remote control, glasses... The urine also became so plentiful and smoky that the blue whale had to shift its excretion to outdoor grass.
Blue Whale's good mentality gradually collapsed, she sorted out her own experience, hoping to share it with more people, and her partner pet will bring countless troubles while bringing beauty to life. She asked: she invested such a huge cost and still encountered troubles, "Do those children who have dogs on a whim have so much time to accompany dogs to teach dogs?" ”
A dog trainer who adheres to the concept of positive training believes that many owners do not attach importance to the social training and behavior training of dogs in their infancy, and like to use scolding punishment to educate dogs, which will cause dogs to become timid, weak, grumpy, low tolerance threshold for human aggression, and the situation of "biting without warning".
The factors that affect the personality of a dog, in addition to the training received, are the specific qualities of the dog breed.
On May 19, 2019, at the Pet Show in Dortmund, Germany, dog trainer Wolfe took his dog to the "Dog Catching Frisbee" performance
Dog management regulations in different regions will have a list of prohibited dogs, and there are two criteria for entering the list, one is the body type, and the other is the breed temperament.
The list of banned dog breeds varies from region to region, ranging from as few as 20 to as many as 40. Taking beijing, which has relatively strict management as an example, in key management areas, the breeding of fierce dogs and dog breeds with adult body heights of more than 35 centimeters is prohibited. More well-known, Akita dogs, German Shepherds, sled dogs, great white bear dogs, and German Dobermans are all on the list of prohibited breeders in Beijing.
Self-media blogger "Dog Brothers and Sisters" runs a kennel in Baoding, Hebei Province, most of which are companion dogs and working dogs such as Labrador, Corgi, Husky and Pugo, of which there is only one fierce fighting dog - Argentine Dogo. It is a hunting dog bred by Argentine breeders to protect the manor, hunt mountain lions and wild boars, and mix fighting dogs, mastiffs, terriers, bullheads and other bloodlines.
Argentine Dogo (Image source: NetEase Video)
"I regretted it a little after I raised Du gao, when I was a child, there was no difference between me and a pet dog, and my personality broke out around the age of one." The dog brothers and sisters said this in the video recording the training of The Dogo, he described Dugao as a "terrorist" in the dog group, fierce, aggressive, fighting will "die", hunting desire is very strong.
They have been careful with it, but in December 2020, tragedy struck. "Dog Brothers and Sisters" uploaded a video called "This is the end of the breeding of a fierce dog", releasing the whole process of the Dogo dog biting a husky alive. They wrote sincerely, "We have advised people countless times not to keep a fierce dog [in the city], and many people have no specific concept of the consequences of raising a fierce dog, and this is a living example." ”
Experienced professional trainers are still unable to domesticate aggressiveness in the genes of dogs, and ordinary people who lack skill and patience can barely control the risks they may pose.
On the other hand, tracing back to the source, the fierce dog trading industry is still in the blind spot of supervision. Through the Internet, the reporter very easily obtained the contact information of a vendor selling fierce dogs and puppies, and in his circle of friends, ignorant puppies were sent to all parts of the country, waiting for the fate of the arrangement.
Circle of friends of merchants selling "fierce dogs"
3 human-dog contradictions
In 2018, an article titled "Walking a dog to a leash, isonia hydrazine to force the progress of Chinese dog civilization" became a hit on the Internet.
Isoniazid in the title is an anti-tuberculosis drug, harmless to humans and has a very high antibacterial power, but it has a strong toxic effect on dogs. The Russians used isoniazid to carry out a wide-scale stray dog killing operation before the World Cup. This report spread to the Chinese Internet and became a model for those with hearts to emulate.
In 2015, an academic paper from the Deyang Animal Epidemic Prevention Station in Sichuan province proved with experimental data that although isoniazid is completely harmless to humans, it has a very strong toxic effect on dogs, and it will die within 90 minutes if it is administered according to 0.15g/kg. (Source: CNKI)
In August of that year, in some neighborhoods in Beijing, there were several cases of pet dogs poisoning themselves after accidentally eating bait containing isoniazid.
In 2019, a developer in Shanxi chose to create a "dog-free community" and pushed the contradiction between people and dogs to the cusp of public opinion. The developer clearly stipulates that dogs are prohibited in the community, and customers need to sign an agreement before they can buy a house.
The fiercest collision between the "dog lover" and its opposing side has to be mentioned as the "Yulin Dog Meat Festival". The debate over whether the Yulin Dog Meat Festival should be banned has spread from online to offline and developed into a live confrontation between dog lovers and dog dealers. Some dog lovers stop cars on the highway and demand that dog dealers release dogs; some dog dealers force dog lovers to buy dogs at high prices in the form of dog abuse, and obtain huge profits from them.
A community in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, creates a "dog-free community" (Source: Shanxi Science and Education Media)
After some yelling, the reality hasn't changed in the slightest. The custom of eating dog meat in Yulin still exists, and those stray dogs who cannot find a place to live are still unable to escape the fate of being wiped out.
Even in developed countries in Europe and the United States, where animal rescue systems are more perfect, the system of centralized execution of stray animals after shelter still exists. The number of cats and dogs breeding will always far exceed the carrying capacity of cities: in the United States and Canada, about 8-10 million cats and dogs enter animal shelters each year, 60% of which will eventually be euthanized; in Japan, stray animal management centers will accept companion pets that people cannot afford to keep, and if they are not adopted within a week, they will be euthanized in a "dream box".
Japan's "Dream Box"
We need to think about the relationship between people and dogs from a higher dimension.
This species, domesticated by humans from wolves, has been bred by humans in nearly 400 species over the past 33,000 years, and has been used by humans as guardians, companions, performers, subjects of experimentation and food.
"Vicious dog" or "dog"? As dogs, they are not good or bad, it is natural to bite aggressively, and meekness is the result of socialization. Whether it is the vicious dog injury incident, the dog meat culture or the stray animal execution system, dogs are passively subject to the constraints and treatment of human civilization.
What needs to be solved is never the "vicious dog", but the governance problem of our city. This is ultimately a contradiction within human society.
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