China Dogs

[Michael Romanos]

The Mainland Chinese middle class are going into pedigree dogs in a big way and the Chinese Government is pouring millions of dollars into dog clubs and the organisation of dog shows etc.
But there is a warning for people who export pups into China.
Most of the buyers of the pups, buy for investment - so there is the danger of the puppy mill - it is not true that people who spend thousands of dollars in importing a dog will treat them well.
Border Collies are especially sought after in China. A young show champion female will sell in China for $10,000.
There is still no animal welfare society or agency in China and the Chinese are market driven rather than driven by ethics. They don't know about avoiding hereditary diseases or doing health checks before breeding dogs.
It is not all bad. There will be a lot of good homes in China for show dogs and pet dogs but China has just no system or knowledge of proper breeding programmes and progeny enhancement etc. It requires education.
New Zealand breeders cannot send dogs directly to China but they can do it through Hong Kong. Thsi year up until the last day of August, 98 dogs from NZ went to Hong Kong compared with 87 and 52 for the whole of 2005 and 2004.
China still uses dogs for the fur and meat industries, though this is being countered by the growing middle class embracing pedigree dogs as a status symbol and the China market for pets and pet products now exceeds $3 billon dollars per year.
The bottom line is: for the present don't send your Corgis to China - directly or through HK until the Chinese have a Western world type structure for dog management.

Go Corgi would greatly welcome anyone from Mainland China to join our website - no matter what dog they have got or haven't got.

[sweetlychee]

China is an emerging power in the world today. But they have a lot of corruption and lack of ethics. They do not value and respect animal rights and issues. They don't even respect human rights. They have a long way to go with healthcare, pollution, and the welfare of people and animals. Some places ban pets and some cities (usually the provincial villages) still sell and eat certain type of animals that people see as pets.

A few months ago due to a rabies scare, China's decided to annihilate dogs. They don't care about vaccinations or preventions in a less cruel and bloddy way. Many people's pets were taken away from them if they have rabies or not. I think PETA is a joke and I'm not as extreme and loony as them.

But to go and destroy thousands of dogs because of a scare/outbreak is ludicrous. HK is a bit better than China since they were Westernized for 99 years but ever since switching over to China, they are getting worse with any rights. They care more about profits than ethics.

[Chip's Mom]

I would not send any dog to any country that I remotely thought would end up on someone's dinner table no matter what the selling price.