Vicki
Administrator
May 3, 2010
Aid arrives for Tibetan mastiffs, forgotten victims of Yushu earthquake
Officials say that 300 mastiffs were crushed to death when their kennels collapsed. Many that survived have been running wild
Aid has arrived at last for the world’s most expensive dogs, left homeless, and often masterless, after last month’s earthquake in northwest China that killed more than 2,000 people
The narrow road to the small Tibetan town of Yushu, destroyed by last month’s 7.1-magnitude tremor, is clogged with lorries carrying aid, food, medicine and warm clothes to 100,000 made homeless. Now eight tonnes of dog food have also been delivered.
Dogs, and frenetic summer horse races, have made Yushu famous across China. Its prized Tibetan mastiffs, the most expensive canines on Earth, are the town's real treasure.
The early-morning earthquake on April 14 killed at least 2,183 people and left almost everyone homeless as brittle mud-built traditional Tibetan homes and low-rise apartment blocks and offices simply crumpled. Officials say that 300 mastiffs were crushed to death when their kennels collapsed. Many of those that survived have been running wild and terrified without their owners, biting rescue workers.
The dogs were once housed in elaborate kennels that lined the only road on the edge of the town. Enormous photographs of the huge, lion-maned, jowly dogs decorated the walls of these tightly guarded compounds, aimed at attracting buyers from across China to one of the costliest status symbols prized by the country’s newly rich. Now they, like their human masters, are homeless.
Before the earthquake, almost every Tibetan home was guarded by a mastiff, famed for their loyalty and a bite every bit as vicious as their bark. These qualities have pumped up their value.
One popular saying has it that to show a man has really made it rich in China, he needs a young and lovely bride, a Lamborghini, a sprawling villa, a thoroughbred horse and the largest, most ferocious Tibetan mastiff to be found.
Yushu was the biggest breeding centre in China for these huge beasts, sometimes weighing up to 18 stone (115 kg). Domesticated 6,000 years ago, they have adapted to the thin air and their shaggy coats protect them in Tibet’s freezing temperatures. Marco Polo described the mastiff as being as tall as a donkey and with a voice like a lion.
Only last month a buyer in central Sichuan province paid a record 10 million yuan (£1 million) for a grand champion. Red Lion eats one kilogram of fresh beef a day, along with other foods, because he is young and still growing.
The mastiffs in Yushu, many of them breeding champions hired out for 200,000 yuan (£20,000) per occasion to mate with a bitch, will need 200 tonnes of dog food over the next three months. But all local supply shops were razed in the earthquake.
Already donations raised on the internet across have reached 21.7 tonnes. But Yushu is believed to be home to as many as 20,000 of the valuable animals, many going hungry after the earthquake. Although, dog fanciers would argue that fewer than 100 are purebreds.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7114438.ece
Aid arrives for Tibetan mastiffs, forgotten victims of Yushu earthquake
Officials say that 300 mastiffs were crushed to death when their kennels collapsed. Many that survived have been running wild
Aid has arrived at last for the world’s most expensive dogs, left homeless, and often masterless, after last month’s earthquake in northwest China that killed more than 2,000 people
The narrow road to the small Tibetan town of Yushu, destroyed by last month’s 7.1-magnitude tremor, is clogged with lorries carrying aid, food, medicine and warm clothes to 100,000 made homeless. Now eight tonnes of dog food have also been delivered.
Dogs, and frenetic summer horse races, have made Yushu famous across China. Its prized Tibetan mastiffs, the most expensive canines on Earth, are the town's real treasure.
The early-morning earthquake on April 14 killed at least 2,183 people and left almost everyone homeless as brittle mud-built traditional Tibetan homes and low-rise apartment blocks and offices simply crumpled. Officials say that 300 mastiffs were crushed to death when their kennels collapsed. Many of those that survived have been running wild and terrified without their owners, biting rescue workers.
The dogs were once housed in elaborate kennels that lined the only road on the edge of the town. Enormous photographs of the huge, lion-maned, jowly dogs decorated the walls of these tightly guarded compounds, aimed at attracting buyers from across China to one of the costliest status symbols prized by the country’s newly rich. Now they, like their human masters, are homeless.
Before the earthquake, almost every Tibetan home was guarded by a mastiff, famed for their loyalty and a bite every bit as vicious as their bark. These qualities have pumped up their value.
One popular saying has it that to show a man has really made it rich in China, he needs a young and lovely bride, a Lamborghini, a sprawling villa, a thoroughbred horse and the largest, most ferocious Tibetan mastiff to be found.
Yushu was the biggest breeding centre in China for these huge beasts, sometimes weighing up to 18 stone (115 kg). Domesticated 6,000 years ago, they have adapted to the thin air and their shaggy coats protect them in Tibet’s freezing temperatures. Marco Polo described the mastiff as being as tall as a donkey and with a voice like a lion.
Only last month a buyer in central Sichuan province paid a record 10 million yuan (£1 million) for a grand champion. Red Lion eats one kilogram of fresh beef a day, along with other foods, because he is young and still growing.
The mastiffs in Yushu, many of them breeding champions hired out for 200,000 yuan (£20,000) per occasion to mate with a bitch, will need 200 tonnes of dog food over the next three months. But all local supply shops were razed in the earthquake.
Already donations raised on the internet across have reached 21.7 tonnes. But Yushu is believed to be home to as many as 20,000 of the valuable animals, many going hungry after the earthquake. Although, dog fanciers would argue that fewer than 100 are purebreds.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7114438.ece