(Updated 15/03/01)

Dogs rounded up in Beijing city

POLICE IN Beijing have started to round up 150,000 unlicensed pet dogs.

The campaign began last week in time for the annual meeting of parliament when dogs, beggars and migrant workers are ‘swept from the streets’.

In the days of Chairman Mao pets were denounced as bourgeois. In China today a dog licence costs £430 with a £9 biting insurance. Stringent laws also dictate that dogs must be shorter than 12 inches and may only go outside between 8pm and 8am.