Shanghai discourages people from owning dogs and will better monitor unlicensed dog sales, the city's head of the Public Security Bureau said yesterday.

Since Shanghai has a very big population yet little space, it is not the time for ''a large scale of people to raise dogs", Wu Zhiming, the director of the bureau, said yesterday at the ongoing session of the Shanghai People's Congress. He said a study found that there are more than 400,000 dogs in Shanghai.

Dog lovers shall abide to the "one-dog" policy for each household, Wu said. Police will "strictly control" people with more than one dog in their household, the raising of big dogs and the illegal sale of unlicensed dogs, Wu said when responding to a proposal by a local congress member.

Miao Lin, a doctor from Putuo District, proposed to modify the current Dog Management Regulations into Pets Management Regulations with 12 changes.

The proposed changes include embedding chips with owners' information into the dogs to control the number of strays and severely punish pet owners who unleash their dogs or bring them to public areas.

Campaigns to rid illegal dogs and regulate dog ownership were launched in major cities like Beijing and Nanjing last year, where big dogs or those with aggressive temperaments are now banned.

(Shanghai Daily January 30, 2007)