St.Bernards in China

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More depressing reading in the dog papers about the farming of St. Bernards in China. Many of the foundation stock for these farms were imported from Switzerland. I am assuming throgh dubious channels, as I can believe that anyone would be gullible enough to send any dogs directly to China, or Korea for that matter.

I will post the article in full later this morning, so be warned, if you prefer not to know what is going on, don`t click on this thread again! (:o|

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2001

Answers

Just getting this on the answers page.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2001

I`ve changed my mind about typing the article.

We all know that certain areas in the Far East have a very different attitude to dogs. Particularly in respect of viewing them as a source of food. It makes me angry and sad, but I don`t have the right to critisise other cultures. The cruelty involved is another matter, and that should be addressed. I hope Government and the weight of the big animal protection societies will eventually have an effect, but in the mean time, we shouldn`t be too complacent here in the West. The cruel slaughter of hunting dogs in Spain, the appalling conditions in some European zoos, puppy farming, the resurgence of dog fighting, the culling of white Boxer puppies, tail docking, the practice of declawing cats and debarking dogs in the States, the whole cycle of over producing dogs to the point that thousands of them are killed every year simply because they are not wanted. We are by no means `squeaky clean`.

What IS different is that the majority of people in the West deplore these practices, and find them abhorrent.

All I can really say is, that we all must be extremely vigillant when letting dogs go overseas - I`m sure you all are - but the routes to the Far East are many and varied, so make sure you are 100 per cent sure of where you are placing your dogs. We`ve all heard stories of, or have been approached by people (especially over the internet) looking for puppies, some can sound very plausible, so BEWARE!

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2001


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