Several cities in China have tightened the management of dog petting as the war of words between dog owners and those who hate or fear unleashed dogs turned violent.
Since January 2017, authorities in Yantai's Zhifu district, East China's Shandong Province have launched 20 operations to regulate dog petting, in which police have taken in more than 500 dogs either abandoned or raised against local regulations, local news site jiaodong.net reported on Tuesday.
Only half of the petting dogs or 5,000 in the district have a registered certificate, the jiaodong.net said.
Authorities of Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province will conduct a three-month operation aimed at regulating dog petting, according to a Sunday report from local news site thecover.cn.
Authorities will encourage digital certificates for dogs and the police will give away dog leashes to the owners, Chengdu Economic Daily reported.
Xi'an, capital city of Northwest China's Shannxi Province, has initiated a blacklist system to restrict dog petting. Dog owners must leash their dogs and bring the dog's certificate when walking their pet.
Owners will be fined for the first and second offense. Anyone who violates the regulation three times would be banned from petting a dog for five years, and the pet's certificate will be revoked, local newspaper Sanqin Daily reported.
As of August 13, Xi'an authorities have revoked the license of eight dog owners.
Zhu Wei, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, praised the stricter regulations and said that they should be promoted in other cities across China.
"Similar regulations could specify the management of pet dogs. It would provide law enforcement officers legal reference when handling cases in which dog hurt people," Zhu told the Global Times on Tuesday.
"If stray dogs are too wild to catch, the officers would be authorized to kill them," Zhu noted.
The measures come after an online article urged people to poison dogs to force pet owners to leash and muzzle the animals in public.
