Beijing – Rules to follow
A young woman is crying while scrutinising a row of cages. She is in the seriously-named Beijing Public Security Dog Detention Centre. Finally, she asks people around her: "Do you come here every week? My dog was brought here last month, but I can't find him anywhere," the woman sobs. "Perhaps you might see my dog? I don't know if he has been adopted.” People around her suggest that she bring a picture of her dog to ask the staff. Information about the dogs can be seen on each cage, including whether they’ve been neutered and whether an adoption has been booked. Free adoption requires an ID card and people need to register with phone numbers and their address. Regular telephone checks are done to prevent the dog from being abandoned after adoption.
The centre is where the capital city’s stray dogs, lost pet dogs, dogs without ownership certificates, and dogs which have harmed people are housed. It is affiliated with the national Public Security Bureau. Non-staff members are not allowed to enter the detention centre at will. Anyone looking for a lost dog or a prospective adoptee needs to show up in person at the Friday open house from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., register and show identification.
Because it’s state-run, it does not face the insecure tenancy of so many other shelters in the country. The residents here are ironically less likely to be displaced than their human counterparts in the capital’s headlong redevelopment of neighbourhoods.
Rumour Mill
But with certainty also comes uncertainty. Often the owners of lost dogs become very concerned when they know that their pets have been placed in custody, and will immediately go to retrieve them. This is partly because of internet rumours, where some people claim that dogs sent here will only be held for a week, and then those that are not collected by owners or adopted by others will be killed.
Another rumour is that no food is provided to the dogs during the detention period. The shocking claims not surprisingly worry people who have lost their dogs.
But a staff member refutes the claims, saying "We will continue to take care of dogs until they are adopted or taken away." As a result, there is no specific time limit for the dogs sent here, and they are not sentenced to death after seven days. Second, the dogs are properly fed and cared for. Visitors to the detention centre are not allowed to bring food to the dogs because the dogs have food prepared by the staff. In the cages, one can see bowls for the dogs to eat and drink from. Although the number of feeding times per day is unclear, many dogs still have unfinished food in their bowls.
It is challenging to get clarifications on the exact procedures, or even the precise number of dogs here, because the staff decline to be interviewed.
The place is efficient if a little severe. All dogs, no matter their size, are kept in the same size cage suspended in the air for the convenience of cleaning up urine and excrement, which falls into gutters below. Although there is no bad smell and the overall situation is relatively sanitary, it is unclear how often, or even if, the dogs are taken out for exercise, and it less-than-ideal for them to live in "mid-air" and be kept in the cages for a long time.
Meanwhile, the young woman is standing helplessly, staring at a small dog in a cage. But it is not her pet, which has still not been found.
