Raising a dog became all the rage in China in the late 1990s as living standards improved. If the authorities adopt the one-dog-per-household rule, many people will carry on keeping multiple dogs while registering only one. They will try to exercise them in secret – or not at all. How that will work is a real problem.

The draft law suggests that the number of dogs a family can own may depend on the size of its house, and its proximity to open spaces. Similarly, Shanghai and other large Chinese cities have also begun to revise their one-child policy, some of them allowing wealthy families to have more than one offspring.

The new law aroused initial opposition from the public after rumors that unclaimed stray dogs were to be put down after 30 days. The situation was clarified by an official, who explained that only dogs infected with diseases like rabies would be put to sleep.

As I see it, the regulation is not the prelude to a mass cull of dogs. There are legal and humane ways to keep the number of dogs under control. Sterilization is easy, and one of the safest methods. Sure, it comes at a cost, but the expense is just one of many associated with keeping a dog.

Stray dogs and cats wander the streets because irresponsible people abandon them. Pet ownership comes with a moral responsibility.

All laws curtail the freedom of some for the greater good. And I see nothing fundamentally inhumane in the draft law.

The new regulations, if properly enforced, should avoid future problems. But there still remains the issue of what do to about the existing surplus of dogs.

(The author is a freelance writer based in Beijing.)

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