No Humane Society and no government funding to protect 60 million homeless dogs.
"Companion animals" or "pets" are a new concept in China. Before 1990, it was not allowed by the Communist Party. With the growth of disposable income and western influence, the demand for companion pets has developed.
Unlike the U.S., there isn’t any large-scale humane network to care for or advocate for abandoned dogs. The government offers no resources either.
No animal protection law for companion animals.
Among the top 10 most industrialized nations, China is the only one that does not have a law against animal cruelty. In 2009, laws protecting animals were proposed for the first time at the annual meeting of China’s Parliament, the National People’s Congress. Every single year since then, a draft of a proposed animal protection law was circulated, but nothing has been enacted after a decade.
Puppy mills run wild without oversight.
Animals bred on pet farms live in poor conditions and are not immunized, which means they carry various parasites and diseases. Unhealthy animals are given cheap antisera to perk them up and then groomed to ensure they sell. Once they arrive at their new homes, the injections wear off and the animals usually die quickly. There is a special term for such a scenario: “week old puppy”, meaning they last only a week. For those that get sick, oftentimes, they are abandoned on the streets.
At current growth rates, there will be 300 million pet cats and dogs in China by 2022. Valued at less than 20 billion yuan (US$3 billion) in 2010, those markets were worth 170 billion yuan (US$18 billion) in 2018. The market for pets is exploding, yet there are still no animal protection laws or even legal standards of care currently in place. The farming, immunization and trading of pets isn’t covered by any specific laws; so, it isn't against the law to breed carelessly or sell a sick puppy.
Accelerated urbanization has created millions of homeless dogs in rural China.
In rural China, dogs are common for households and are generally used as the “gate watcher.” These dogs are usually chained for life on the family property, never allowed to go inside the house, sometimes not protected against the elements, and seldom treated with kindness.
With rapid urbanization over the last thirty years, millions of people left rural communities and moved into high-rise apartment buildings. Unfortunately, dogs were left behind because they are regarded as “too dirty” to live inside a home. With an urbanization target of 70% by 2025, that’s 900 million people leaving the countryside. It is common in rural China to see abandoned dogs waiting in front of the old family house for their owners to return.
No humane population control.
In response to public complaints about rabies and other diseases, city governments attempt to eliminate stray dogs by brutally killing them. Commonly known in Chinese as Chengguan, local government law enforcement agencies organize routine campaigns to round up stray dogs, beating them to death or drowning them to decrease the stray dog population on the streets.
For some people, it’s too hard to have a dog.
Harsh new regulations to confiscate and kill unregistered dogs and banned breeds (those taller than 35 mm) are leaving many pet owners scrambling on short notice to obtain licenses for their dogs, to hastily re-home breeds that have recently been banned, and to struggle to follow extremely harsh restrictions regarding caring for their pets (they are ordered where and when they should walk their dogs). Such violent and cruel policies create more problems than they solve as more dogs are abandoned (registration fees and penalties are just too high and it is impractical to have to walk the dog within a certain period in certain areas).