During the just past Two Sessions of Shanghai, a large number of legislators and political advisers advocated for stricter dog regulations, according to Shine. This, may come as no surprise considering the nationwide clampdown on man's best friend last year.
Shanghai's current regulation, implemented back in 2011, requires all dog owners to register their pets once they've reached 12 weeks old. However, by 2016 there were a mere 140,000 registered canines, far fewer than the estimated number of over a million. "The figure is predicted to reach two million by next year," stated Liu Huili, deputy director of the Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science.
READ MORE: How to Register Your Dog in Shanghai
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The enormous number of unregistered dogs has brought colossal challenges for city enforcers to diminish dog-related misdeeds; instances of unleashed dogs or excrement being left on the sidewalk can still be spotted all too often. Meanwhile, there are more than 2,000 newly-diagnosed rabies patients in China each year, the second largest number around the globe.
To keep a tighter leash on dog ownership, legislators have called for a citywide crackdown to bust all unregistered pooches. "We can give them one to two months as a buffer period," advised Xia Jinhua, a committee member from Institute of Philosophy, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. "They will face grave penalties if they haven't registered or microchipped their dogs before the deadline."
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The penalty will stack up as well. "Law enforcers should spare no effort to bust uncivilized behaviors of the dog owners,” said Xia. "In addition, each neighborhood can form their own volunteer brigades as well, to dissuade residents from irresponsible behavior."
According to Shanghai's Regulation on Dog Ownership, pet owners are obligated to keep their dogs on a leash, and immediately clean up any dog waste when walking their canines. Any violation could incur a fine of RMB20-RMB200. In the future, the violators may even see their social credit affected.
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