杭州出台“最严限狗令”引发争议

HONG KONG — A major city in China is cracking down on pet dogs, banning dog walking during the day and prohibiting many larger breeds, after a publicized fight between a dog owner and a bystander.

香港——中国一座大城市正在严打宠物狗，禁止白天遛狗，并且禁止饲养多个大型犬品种。此前，一名狗主人和一名旁观者发生打斗，受到广泛报道。

The new rules in Hangzhou, in eastern China, were adopted after a dog owner was filmed pushing and shoving a woman who had kicked his dog. Before the fight, surveillance footage showed a young boy hiding behind her as the dog circled them without a leash.

中国东部城市杭州的限狗令是在一名狗主人被拍到推搡一名踢狗的女子后通过的。监控录像显示，打斗前，一个小男孩躲在该名女子身后，没有栓狗绳的狗围着他们转。

The harsh restrictions on dogs — which hark back to anti-pet rules in earlier decades of Communist rule and reflect continuing tensions over the place of dogs in society — officially took effect on Thursday. In addition to a dog walking ban from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., officials vowed to confiscate or kill dogs that were not properly licensed, fining negligent owners 5,000 to 10,000 RMB, or $720 to $1,440. Dogs found outdoors outside of the curfew would also be “detained temporarily” and their owners could be fined.

对狗的严格禁令将于周四正式生效，这可以追溯到共产党执政最初几十年的反宠物规定，也反映出围绕狗在社会中所处地位的持续紧张局面。除了从早上7点到晚上7点禁止遛狗之外，官员们还誓言要没收或捕杀没有许可证的狗，对未经批准擅自养犬的主人处以5000至10000元人民币的罚款(合720至1440美元)。在规定时间以外，在户外发现的狗也会被“暂时扣留”，主人可能会面临罚款。

The city has also banned 34 “vicious” large breeds, including Tibetan mastiffs, German shepherds, Great Danes, Chinese rural dogs and some mixed breeds. A volunteer involved in animal adoptions said this could make it difficult for dog owners who have already rescued large dogs.

这座城市还禁止饲养34种“烈性”大型犬品种，包括藏獒、德国牧羊犬、大丹犬、中华田园犬以及一些混合品种。一名参与动物收养的志愿者表示，这可能会给那些营救大型犬的狗主人带来麻烦。

Hangzhou’s animal rights volunteers said that they had seen dogs of all sizes being confiscated this week. Thousands have also commented on a post on Weibo, a popular social media platform, from the International Olympic Committee to debate Hangzhou’s fitness to host the 2022 Asian Games in light of its treatment of dogs.

杭州的动物权益志愿者说，本周他们已经看到各种大小的犬类被没收。数千人来到国际奥委会在人气颇高的社交媒体平台微博上的一篇帖子下面留言，争论鉴于杭州对待狗的方式，这座城市是否还适合举办2022年亚运会。

Videos of uniformed city law enforcers beating dogs with metal poles have circulated widely on Chinese social media and chat groups. But the authenticity of the videos could not be verified, as similar crackdowns have occurred in other cities in the past, and it is unclear when the videos were filmed. Before the recent wave of viral videos appeared, a district in Hangzhou released a statement asking the public not to believe “rumors” pertaining to dogs and its law enforcement, adding that they had reported the “malicious spreading” of rumors to the public security agency.

身穿制服的城管人员用金属棒打狗的视频在中国的社交媒体和聊天群里广泛传播。但其真实性无法核实，类似的打狗行动在其他城市也曾发生过，尚不清楚这些视频是何时拍摄的。在近期病毒式传播的视频浪潮出现之前，杭州的一个区发布声明，要求公众不要相信有关“谣言”，还说，针对“恶意传播”谣言的行为，他们已向公安机关报案。

China has a history of using dogs to make aggressive political statements. Dogs were branded as political enemies in the 1940s for revealing the movements of Communist fighters who resisted Japanese colonizers by nightfall. For decades, they were derided as bourgeois house pets that wasted scarce resources. Sometimes, dogs were openly beaten on streets as an act of aggression.

中国有利用狗来发表激进政治声明的历史。在1940年代，因暴露了抵抗日本殖民者的共产主义战士在夜幕降临前的行动，狗被打上政治敌人的标签。几十年来，它们被嘲笑为浪费稀缺资源的资产阶级宠物。有时，作为一种挑衅，狗遭到当街殴打。

Though many dog restrictions were gradually loosened after China’s economic reforms in the 1980s, some officials and others have remained hostile.

尽管上世纪80年代的经济改革后，许多针对狗的禁令已逐渐放松，但一些官员和其他人仍然怀有敌意。

Qin Xiaona, the director of the Capital Animal Welfare Association and a longtime animal rights campaigner, said that a deeply held fear of dogs revealed a society full of insecurity. “There is a lack of empathy for dogs, and also a lack of trust between humans,” she said, calling Hangzhou’s new restrictions “regressive,” “lazy” and “inhumane.”

首都爱护动物协会会长、长期从事动物权利活动的秦肖娜表示，对狗的深深恐惧暴露出一个充斥着不安全感的社会。“缺乏对动物的宽容，人与人之间也缺乏信任，”她指出，杭州的新禁令是“倒退”、“懒政”、“缺乏人道的”。

Pet ownership has become increasingly affordable for the emerging middle class, and animal rights activism is increasingly accepted, especially among younger generations. But some animal rights advocates acknowledge that the deeply rooted fear of dogs may also be aggravated by a lack of discipline on the part of some dog owners. City authorities have often reacted with harsh policies. Dog walking is also banned, for example, in Wenshan, a city in the southwestern province of Yunnan, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.

对新兴的中产阶级来说，越来越多的人养得起宠物了，动物权利运动也越来越被接受，尤其是在年轻一代当中。但一些动物权利倡导者承认，一些主人缺乏自律，可能会加剧对狗根深蒂固的恐惧。市政当局往往以严厉的政策来应对。例如，在西南省份云南的文山市，从早上7点到晚上10点禁止遛狗。

Irene Feng, Animal Asia’s director of cat and dog welfare, said that friction between dog owners and fearful city dwellers would dwindle when “civilized dog-owning habits” are practiced, such as walking dogs on leashes and cleaning up after them.

亚洲动物基金猫狗福利项目总监冯冬梅表示，形成“文明养狗习惯”后，比如遛狗牵绳、清理粪便等，狗主人和害怕的城市居民之间的冲突将会减少。

“To manage city dogs, you need to manage their owners well. This is a stance many urban departments can already understand,” she said, saying that she hoped that Hangzhou would lift its restrictions on its dogs as other cities had done.

“要管理城市犬只应该做好养犬人的管理。这个观点现在也是得到了很多城市养犬管理部门的认可的，”她说，她希望杭州能像其他城市一样，取消对狗的限制。