I’m not much of an animal rights activist (like Cass Sunstein from whom I found this) but this is terrible:

A county in southwestern China has killed as many as 50,000 dogs in a government-ordered campaign following the deaths of three local people from rabies, official media reported on Tuesday.The five-day massacre in Yunnan province’s Mouding county spared only military guard dogs and police canine units, the Shanghai Daily reported, citing local media.Dogs being walked were taken from their owners and beaten to death on the spot, it said. Other killing teams entered villages at night creating noise to get dogs barking, then homing in on their prey. [Emphasis added]

The worst part is that dogs were taken from owners all because of a small outbreak of rabies. Maybe the Chinese should check out this thing called vaccinations, they are a hell of a lot cheaper than employing roving doggy assassination squads and a lot nicer to dogs and their (sometimes, although obviously less often in China) loving owners.