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New | Tibetan mastiff attack stirs debate about dangers of ‘world’s most expensive dog’
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Revered as a status symbol in mainland China, the Tibetan mastiff can be a highly dangerous, ferocious animal, as a woman in Beijing’s Miyun county found out to her misfortune.
According to the Beijing Times, the woman had gone to her neighbour’s house to ask for help turning off the supply to a leaking water pipe. She was bitten multiple times by the neighbour’s Tibetan mastiff, which was not tied up, and suffered a brain haemorrhage. This week she was awarded 14,000 yuan (HK$17,700) compensation by a Beijing court for her injuries.
The Tibetan mastiff, originally bred to protect sheep from wolves, is banned in many Chinese cities. Last August, the Bandao Daily reported that a six-year-old girl died after being attacked by a Tibetan mastiff, and accounts of attacks by the dogs are common in Chinese media, including one case in which 20 police officers were called to deal with two dogs which had attacked pedestrians in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province. Perhaps the greatest example of the animal’s perceived ferocity is that a Henan zoo reportedly attempted to pass one off as an “African lion”.
Tibetan mastiffs are also expensive. According to the Qianjiang Evening News, a property developer paid 12 million yuan for a one-year-old golden-haired mastiff at a “luxury pet” fair in Zhejiang province.
While insiders have warned that sky-high prices may be the result of insider agreements among breeders to attract publicity, the dogs have proved a hit with China’s nouveau riche as a living status symbol.
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