Dogs leap from dinner plate to place of honor in China

There is nothing overly remarkable about Lao Qin Photo, an upscale studio trendily located in a closed-down factory building on the outskirts of Beijing. Except all the customers are dogs.

There is nothing overly remarkable about Lao Qin Photo, an upscale studio trendily located in a closed-down factory building on the outskirts of Beijing. Except all the customers are dogs.

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A steady stream of canines walk in for the studio's services, which range from mug shots for government-mandated dog IDs to luxurious albums, and at the other end of the leash are the city's newly rich, who have the money to spend.

"People need to feed their dogs, and clothe them, too, and many feel they must buy all kinds of little toys for them," said Nuo Shan, an employee at the studio.

"It isn't cheap, so it's not a hobby for people who scarcely have money enough to look after themselves," she said.

Dogs have always been very popular in northern China, but previously mostly as a specialty dish believed to keep the body warm during the cold winter months. Now some pampered pooches eat better food than their owners.

"I look after my dog first, and then myself second," said an elderly widow visiting the Lao Qin studio.

It isn't all good news for the dogs. As a result of the emergence of a middle-class society, they have been transformed into consumer items which, like cars and clothes, can be bought at a whim and then disposed of.

Li Huiying, a retired woman living in Wangjing New City, a gated community for Beijing's moderately well-off, explained how it had slowly become her job to walk her daughter's dog, a Pekingese, every morning.

"My daughter bought it five years ago, when it was a cute little puppy," she said. "But now's she lost interest, and anyway she has to work, so it's up to me to look after it."

Dog ownership in a place like Wangjing New City reflects how the middle classes now engage in fierce competition on status symbols.

"What you can show off is either the way you are dressed, the kind of friends you have, your car, or your dog," said Luigi Tomba, a sociologist at the Australian National University who specializes in urban China.

"If you buy a big TV it's only for your friends. But if you have a nice dog, you can show it off in the communal area," he said.

The materialist undertones of dog ownership are not lost on the authorities, who have shown an ambivalent attitude towards man's best friend.

In the old days of chairman Mao Zedong, keeping a dog was considered a decadent capitalist habit and, along with concerns about hygiene, resulted in policies making it prohibitively expensive for most people to keep one.

Rules introduced in Beijing in 1994 mandated a registration fee of 5,000 yuan (600 dollars), equivalent to the annual disposable income of city dwellers at the time, plus a steep renewal fee payable once a year.

The registration fee was lowered in late 2003 to a much more affordable 1,000 yuan (120 dollars), in order, the city's lawmaking assembly said, "not to infringe on people's right to keep a dog".

The result is likely to be an explosion in the pet industry, which is already thriving in a city of 14 million people plus up to one million dogs.

At the Beijing Zhongai Pet Shop, the shelves are filled with shampoo, conditioners, toothpaste, nail clippers, vitamins, science diets and specialist magazines, while an attached beauty parlor offers expert treatment.

"Some people spend up to 2,000 yuan (240 dollars) a month to make sure their pet is well," said Jiang Lidong, the shop's owner, as he watched a furry client get its hair dried and claws clipped by a team of young women in white robes.

The willingness to spend big money has benefited Beijing Pet Hospital, which started 13 years ago as a 25-square-meter (280-square-foot) operation, but is now a three-storey building with a 55-member staff and four branches.

On top of X-rays and blood transfusions, it performs a range of cosmetic services from liposuction to plastic surgery.

"Our customers see other people's dogs and don't want to be outdone," said Ling Fengjun, the hospital's director. "They want shorter tails for their dogs, or straighter ears."

China's petonomics doesn't stop here. There are special pet gyms, complete with coaches and treadmills, pet cemeteries, and even bestsellers like "How to Sew Clothes for Your Beloved Canine".

The total annual volume of trade in pets and pet-related products has now reached ten billion yuan (1.2 billion dollars), according to the Zhongchong Pet and Related Products Development and Service Center, a state-backed agency.

But money isn't everything. For some big-city people, dogs fill an emotional vacuum.

In a society where the draconian one-child policy has limited family sizes drastically, buying a dog provides a welcome opportunity for adding another member.

"People often have photos taken with their own dogs," said Nuo of the Lao Qin studio. "Mom, dad, and dog -- it's almost like a small family."