2009 Shaanxi dog massacre

In 2009, the government of Shaanxi Province in north central People's Republic of China (PRC) began killing dogs as part of a campaign to stop the spread of rabies in the region, caused by stray dogs attacking humans. In 2006 a similar massacre of 50,000 dogs in Mouding county, Yunnan Province in south central China occurred after three deaths from rabies. This was followed a couple of weeks later by another mass slaughter in Jining, Shandong province in western China after 16 people died from rabies. China uses both the compulsory vaccination and registration of pets and the killing of strays as instruments in rabies control. Dogs, except in cages for sale as meat, are not allowed in a number of urban areas and strays are killed. World Health Organization reports attribute some part of a rise in rabies in China in the 1980s to which saw an increase in dog populations in rural areas, and later in the 1990s to an increase in the demand for dog meat and to problems with rabies vaccine quality. The government ordered all dogs within a radius range of 3206 square kilometres to be killed, including registered and vaccinated dogs. Stray and wild dogs within the region were also put down by the government.<ref name="cd-rabies"/> It was reported that over 20,000 dogs had been killed in the city of Hanzhong alone.<ref name="cd-rabies"/> Free leashes were also provided to allow citizens to control their dogs.

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