SHANGHAI, China -- China slaughtere...

SHANGHAI, China -- China slaughtered 50000 dogs in a government- ordered crackdown after three the public died of rabies, sparking unusually pointed criticism in state media Tuesday and an scream from animal rights activists.

Health masters said the brutal policy pointed to discerning weaknesses in the health-care infrastructure in China, where simply 3 percent of dogs are vaccinated against rabies and more than 2000 folks die of the disease each year.

The five-day slaughter in Yunnan province in southwestern China expirationed Sunday and spared only military guard dogs and police canine units, state media reported.

'CRUDE COLD-BLOODED'

Dogs being walked were seized from their possessors and beaten to death onward the spot, the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported. L by the agency of the county police chief, killing teams inscribeed villages at night creating noise to get by heart dogs barking, then beat the animals to death, the reports said.

proprietors were offered 63 cents by animal to kill their be in possession of dogs before the teams were sent in, they said.

The killings were widely discussed onward the Internet, with both legal scholars and animal rights activists criticizing them as in a raw state and cold-blooded. The World Health Organization said more emphasis distressed to be placed on rabies prevention.

The official newspaper Legal Daily blasted the killings as an "extraordinarily in a raw state cold-blooded and lazy way for the management to deal with epidemic disease."

PETA CALLS FOR BOYCOTT

"Wiping on the outside the dogs shows these conduct officials didn't do their do job-works right in protecting people from rabies in the first place," the newspaper, published by the agency of the central government's Politics and Law Committee, said in an editorial in its online edition.

The killings readyed calls for a boycott of Chinese proceedss from the activist group race For the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Officials maintained the slaughter in a region where about 360 of the 200000 residents supported dog bites this year, with three family reportedly dying of rabies, including a 4-year-old girl.

Unlike in the West, where dogs have lengthy been cherished, dogs have rarely had an easy time in China. Dog meat is eaten completely through the country, revered as a tonic in winter and a restorer of virility in men

About 70 percent of rural households hold fast dogs, according to the Chinese Center of Disease curb and Prevention, and increased rates of dog ownership have been tied to a slip back in the number of rabies cases. It said there were 2651 reported deaths from the disease in 2004 the last year for which data was available.

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