China refuses to muzzle one-dog policy enforcers

BEIJING, Nov 14 (Reuters) Chinese police defended their enforcement of a one-dog policy in the capital today even while admitting they did not have enough manpower to deal with crime in the rest of the country.

In a rare show of public anger on Saturday, at least 200 protesters lined a Beijing street to denounce a crackdown restricting the number of dogs and even their size.

Officials a few years ago relaxed rules on pet ownership but demanded each household keep no more than one dog and pay 500 yuan a year for the privilege, after an initial fee.

Dog numbers in Beijing have nonetheless been soaring, along with cases of bites and rabies.

''Everywhere is pushing standard behaviour for raising dogs, and I think this programme still needs to be carried out in accordance with the law, scientifically and orderly,'' said Bao Suixian, deputy head of the Public Security Management Bureau.

Denying that the police had any plans for mass dog cullings, Bao told a news conference that it was an issue not just of enforcing the law, but of public safety too.

''People have the right to raise dogs, but people who don't have dogs also have rights,'' he said. ''People are worried about two things -- dogs wounding them and dogs harassing them.'' He added that Beijing police would ''coordinate'' with neighbouring provinces and cities to go after dogs which had been sent out of the capital to escape the crackdown.

Protests are rare in the national capital. Beijing authorities have been vigilant against assemblies since 1989 when pro-democracy demonstrations ended in a bloody army crackdown.

But while China's police are refusing to back down in their dog campaign, they say that their resources are being stretched thin dealing with other more serious problems, like murder, rape and arson, especially in the vast countryside.

''Our main problem is that we do not have enough police at grassroots levels, especially in rural areas,'' Bao said.

''In our huge country of 1.3 billion people, facing such onerous public security pressures with just 1.8 million police, it's just not realistic to be able to maintain a stable security situation,'' he added.

Officials have warned the countryside remains far from tranquil, as hundreds of millions of poor farmers seek a foothold in the nation's new-found wealth, protesting over the loss of farmland, corruption and pollution.

Reuters BDP DB1144