The crime: walking without a license

The penalty: immediate death sentence

In most countries which believe in the rule of law, the principle of proportional justice is used to describe the idea that the punishment of a certain crime should be in proportion to the severity of the crime itself. Just like the saying: the punishment should fit the crime.

Not in some cities in China.  In those cities, it is illegal for a dog to be out on the street between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.  It is illegal for a dog to be on the streets at any time without its owner.  It is illegal to have a dog without a proper license.  Who pays the penalty for violating these laws?  The dog.  The police are authorized to kill, on the spot, any dog on the street without its owner or without a license.  How do they execute the dogs?  In the most horrible way possible – they are brutally and sadistically beaten to death with metal poles and bamboo sticks.  They die slowly, often wagging their tails hoping for the pain to stop, until the very end.  Or they are taken to government “shelters” where, regardless of age or size or breed, they are starved, neglected and eventually beaten to near death, suffering for hours before they die.  The owner, through negligence or ignorance, has committed the crime of letting the dog out or not paying for the license. But it is the dogs who are put to death in the most horrible ways possible.

The above photograph is graphic as well as heart-breaking.  We have blurred it a bit but the dog is dead and the dark liquid around him is blood.

What can you do to help?  Sign our petition to tell the Chinese government to stop the killing of dogs for simply being in public without an owner or a license.  Write to your representative in Congress and ask him or her to raise the issue of the Chinese treatment of dogs in Congress and to punish China until it changes its laws.  Adopt a dog rescued from the Chinese meat trade - hundreds have been rescued but have no homes and are at risk of being killed by the Chinese government. 

The dogs are guiltless and voiceless.  We must speak for them.