On July 1, Beijing's public security bureau said there were
458,773 pet dogs registered in the capital, 52,556 of them new, by
last Thursday's registration deadline, but that many owners have
not paid fees. Meanwhile, questions have been raised about how
revenue from the fees is spent.
A regulation approved by the city's municipal people's congress
in 2003 set the dog registration fee at 1,000 yuan (US$121) for the
first year of registration and 500 yuan (US$60) for each following
year.
This was a reduction from 5,000 yuan (US$604) in the first year
and 2,000 yuan (US$242) for subsequent years.
An anonymous local government official said that revenue raised
from fees since 2003 is supposed to be passed on to central
government funds but that this hasn't actually happened since last
July, when it began to be used for local salaries instead.
Zhang Qiang, an animal protection volunteer, calculated that
total revenues should now total more than 280 million yuan (US$33.8
million).
China Times reported that the public security bureau refused to
say whether this amount had been collected, or how the money would
be spent this year, but the anonymous local official said this
amount had definitely not been raised.
Zhang questioned why the pet registration fee was needed and why
it didn't cover such things as medical treatment and insurance to
cover compensation if a dog bit someone.
One owner named Wang said she was pleased to pay less for
registration now, but added, "I just want to know how the local
public security bureau spends the money and whether it can be used
to provide services to pet owners."
According to the local public security bureau, the police have
confiscated 1,609 dogs for not being registered. Bureau official
Tang Liyun said his officers would crack down on unregistered dogs
in the first two weeks of July.
(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan July 7, 2005)