Prohibition of dog walking in the city without evidence
□ Qu Zheng
On November 13, the Public Security Bureau of Weixin County and the Bureau of Housing and Urban-rural Development in Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province jointly issued the "Notice on Civilized Dog Raising and Prohibition of Walking Dogs in Weixin County", which stated that it strengthened the management of dog raising in the urban planning area of Weixin County. At work, it is stipulated that the citizens must carry out the dog breeding or captive breeding. If they are found walking the dog in the county town, they will be warned and fined for the first and second time, and the public security agency will be contacted for the third time to kill them.
After the announcement, this "strictest in history" ban immediately aroused public debate.
On November 15, Weixin County responded that it was convening multiple departments to study the matter. “Urban management must be standardized, but everything must be in accordance with laws and regulations.”
In recent years, with the improvement of people’s living standards, more and more urban residents have raised dogs, which has caused many social governance problems. In particular, dog injuries that occur from time to time also make people wonder how to manage dog diseases. Quite concerned.
In this sense, the original intention of Weixin County’s announcement is understandable, but what methods and measures are used to manage dogs not only reflect the civilization of a city, but also the wisdom of city managers.
In order to better manage the dog infestation, many cities have continuously explored and summarized experience in their management practices, and have accumulated some more effective treatment measures that are highly accepted by the people.
For example, Jinan City stipulates that the length of the leash when walking a dog shall not exceed 1.5 meters; Shenzhen will fully implement the implantation of electronic chips for dogs this year, and realize that 100% of the registered dogs will be implanted with chips by the end of the year.
Other cities have specified in detail the time and scope of activities for citizens to walk their dogs.
These regulations seem cumbersome and trivial, but they are highly operable. As long as they are implemented in practice, they can not only satisfy the citizens' dog-raising preferences, but also effectively control dog problems.
Compared with the measures taken by these cities, Weixin County's approach is obviously a bit simple and rude, overstretched, and even bloody and cruel.
In fact, this move is also suspected of violating relevant laws.
It should be noted that keeping dogs is a right of citizens and cannot be deprived of them at will.
Our country's laws and regulations on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, Animal Epidemic Prevention Law, Public Security Management Penalty Law, and other laws and regulations do not prohibit citizens from raising dogs or prohibiting citizens from walking dogs.
Even the "Zhaotong City Management Regulations" issued by the local government only stipulates that bringing pets out of the house "should be tied up" without depriving citizens of the right to walk their dogs.
Obviously, the county’s recent announcement that "walking the dog for three direct killings" is unfounded and violates the principle of "no authorization by law, no action," and should be corrected.
From the perspective of governance effects, warnings, fines, and killings seem to be simple and easy, but they are also easy to cause public resistance. At the same time, experience tells us: Behind simple and crude measures, they often correspond to the ideas of lazy and lazy governance. As a local government department, you might as well learn from the more mature practices of other cities, instead of introducing some excessive and illegal rules that violate the concept and spirit of the rule of law, so as to shirk the responsibilities of the rule of law propaganda, sanitation and epidemic prevention that should be borne by itself.