Word: pet
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...told my worried Bhutanese guide, who like many in the staunchly Buddhist country considers canines to be only slightly below humans in the karmic heirarchy - was yes, but. Yes, Chinese, particularly in the south, do have a taste for fresh dog meat. But in recent years, urban pet ownership has skyrocketed, as yuppies (or Chuppies, as they're locally dubbed) find a poodle or a schnauzer or a schnoodle (a cross between the two breeds) the perfect accompaniment to their modern lives. Just a couple years ago, my own miniature schnauzer, Cassius, used to be mistaken on the streets...
...Little did I know that as I was extolling China's new pet consciousness to my Bhutanese friend, a puppy massacre was taking place back home. Spooked by a rash of rabies outbreaks?China is second only to India in the number of rabies cases - officials in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong and the southwestern province of Yunnan had turned dramatically against their canine populations. Instead of vaccinating people's pets to prevent further spread of the disease, local officials marched through village streets banging pots and pans. Whatever barking that ensued was quickly silenced by a bash...
...Wallace has spent most of the past 63 years getting as cosy with spiders as it's advisable to be. In a scientific way, mind: "Spiders are not something you keep as a pet. They're too precious." Driven by interest alone-a builder by trade, he never went to university-he's become a national authority on eight-legged crawly things ("arachnologist," he corrects), consulted by everyone from students to museum curators and pest-control firms. "Sometimes people send squashed ones," he says with a laugh. "Then you mightn't know what...
...There is, of course, outrage in China as well. The People's Republic's adoption of bourgeois values has, in recent years, led to a larger pet-owning population. What is notable, however, is the Chinese media's open coverage of these enormous culls, which opens government policy to the public's critical eye; in contrast, violations of human-as opposed to animal-rights are very rarely publicized by the mainstream Chinese media and very rarely open to public scrutiny. China is a country where advocacy for abused animals is more recognized and permissible than advocacy for abused humans. Part...
...Although people in Beijing don't generally eat dogs, which are raised for meat in the south of the country, the idea of dogs as pets hadn't caught on back then. That time, however, is long past. Today it seems everyone in my neighborhood has a dog. Genghis barely attracts any notice. Like humans, pet dogs must be registered with the local police station; owners pay a fee for registration. This is a lot of money and thus a dog confers a certain status on its owner...