Professor Zhi Zhenfeng: Coping with Difficulties in the Administration of Dog-Raising in Cities

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Recently, Professor Zhi Zhenfeng, a research fellow at CASS Law Institute, was interviewed by the newspaper People’s Daily about the difficulties in the administration of dog-raising in cities. In the interview, he pointed out that currently the laws on the administration of dog-raising are mainly local regulations adopted by various local governments, for example, the Regulations of Guangzhou City on Dog Management, which came into force on July 1, 2009, and the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Dog Management, which was adopted in 2011. Because the lack of unity of law enforcement organs or specialized organs, administration of dog-raising has become a marginal business of law enforcement organs, without sufficient personnel or funding. This, in addition to many problems associated with dog management, such as high-frequency of occurrence, easiness to trigger social conflicts, and the social sensitivity of the issue, have resulted in the lack of willingness and motivation on the part of some law enforcement organs to enforce the relevant laws. At the legislative level, currently there is no uniform law in the country, nor unified institutional or top-level policy design in this area. The local rules and regulations adopted by local governments at various levels have low legal effects and therefore unable to solve the many problems in dog management in the country. In view of this situation, Professor Zhi suggests that China adopt uniform administrative regulations and establish uniform law enforcement organs and mechanisms for dog management, strengthen grassroots management, and encourage property management companies and house-owners’ committees to assist law-enforcement organs in dog management.