The Big Dog Shit List: Protecting cyclists from our furry friends
One of the best things about cycling in China is that dogs usually won’t mess with you. In Taiwan, they frequently chased me, nipped at my ankles or just barked and snarled menacingly as I rode by. But in China, dogs keep a low profile. They just seem happy to be alive and away from the stew pot! But that’s not always the case. One of my old riding mates was pedaling through a village in the mountains outside Guangzhou one day. He started thinking about how chickens and dogs were always running around all over the place, but the dogs left the chickens alone. Just as he completed that thought, a dog came trotting around the corner with a big chicken in his mouth! I imagine the farmer had at least two types of meat on his dinner table that night.
A typical Chinese street mutt. He's got nothing to prove. Just wants to stay out of the hotpot.
Most of the dogs I’ve seen are small, and the wise bureaucrats who run Guangzhou want to keep it that way. Last summer, they issued a new edict that said families could only have one dog and it couldn’t be a big one. For those wondering what kind of dogs were OK, officials compiled what I call “The Big Dog Shit List.” It’s a list of 36 dog breeds that Guangzhou households are not allowed to have. Big posters went up in building lobbies and on walls in neighborhoods, explaining the policy, listing the banned dogs and showing photos of each breed.
The "Big Dog Shit List" poster on the side of a building, partially covered up by another poster.
I wish I could have been at the meeting when the bureaucrats were deciding which breeds to put on the shit list (see below). The much-maligned Pit Bull made it to the top of the list. There might not be much debate about that. But why was the Dogo Argentina ranked No. #3. Wait a minute, what is a Dogo Argentina? And did the Caucasian Owtcharka really deserve to be in the Top 10? The Dogue de Bordeaux would have made my Top 10, but the Guangzhou officials might have had better information than I do. I’ve always been a dog lover and thought I was pretty good at identifying all the breeds. It was truly a humbling experience reading through this list and realizing that I’d never heard of many of the breeds. A Saarloos Wolfdog? Wha?
I’m not sure if Germans should be proud or outraged that the Dutch Shepherd Dog ranked higher than the German Shepherd. I hope that all those Guangzhou folks who were tempted to start raising Flanders Cattle Dogs in this crowded metropolis have shifted to Yorkies or Poodles (the toy kind!).
I got the biggest kick out of the photo of the Tibetan Mastiff (below). The pictures of all the other dogs seem to have been provided by their breeders’ associations. The animals all looked dignified and beautiful, as if they were ready to enter the final round of a show. But the Tibetan Mastiff appears rabid, ready to rip off your calf muscle. What’s the message here?
Grrrrr, I'm evil and nasty, just like the Dalai Lama!
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This right after they ban eating dogs and cats ? Coincidence ? I think not.
You forgot to mention the perils of riding past the mutant beasts on Wild Dog Hill….
Those Wild Dog Hill canines were a bit more muscular than the average Chinese dog, but they were generally harmless. The greater danger with the slippery mystery moss on the roads.
Where is the Chow Chow? It is not on list.
Good point, Jon. That’s one of the funny things about the list. It includes several exotic breeds but excludes some common ones. How about the Airedale?
The people who made this list don’t know nothing about dog’s. I own a English Bull Terrier and now is banned, why is that? Is my Bullie more aggressive that one Golden Retriever? i don’t think so, not at all !!! My Bullie bitch never bite no dog, more than that other dogs try to bite her such as Retriever and many types of small dogs (yes…). They should rise up the penalties against the irresponsible owners or put them in the jail if they dog bite people. They must give huge penalties if they walk with the dog’s off leash. Till the end is not the dog’s faults is the irresponsible owners. Is not about dog’s is all about owners. But who knows which big guy or his relative was bite by a dog ?!?!?!?!