A Pound of Cure

This isn't Howard's usual news beat, but sometimes a story crosses his desk that merits extra attention:

Shanghai, China -- Last week, a county in southwestern Yunnan province killed 50,000 dogs, many of them beaten to death in front of their owners, after three people died of rabies.

The slaughters have outraged animal rights groups, who call them cruel and a sign of government incompetence in dealing with rabies, an often fatal disease that attacks the nervous system but which can be warded off with a series of injections.

"I think this is completely insane," said Zhang Luping, founder of the Beijing Human and Animal Environmental Education Center.

"What's more, this really damages our national image and sets a really bad example to show how lazy and inconsiderate those local government officials are," Zhang said.

You think? When giving uninfected dogs a simple rabies shot could also work?

A second round of mass dog slaughters has been ordered by Chinese authorities which could number in the hundreds of thousands. Still, to be fair to the Chinese government, the dog owners were compensated $0.60 for their loss.