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THE RISE AND FALL OF THE TIBETAN MASTIFF IN CHINA

Sadly, whenever a certain breed becomes part of a cultural fad, the consequences are often swift, steep, and long-lasting for the integrity of the line as a whole.

by: Timothy Dunn
Date: April 11, 2016
Warning: This post contains graphic content that may not be suitable for all readers.

Over the last four years, one of the world's largest breeds—if not the largest—saw an equally large popularity explosion in China. After gaining prominence in Chinese luxury markets as symbols of wealth and cultural heritage, prices for the Tibetan mastiff soared to astronomical levels.

At one point in 2014, a golden purebred puppy was sold for 12 million yuan (which translates to about 1.9 million U.S. Dollars). According to an AP report, the puppy was bought at a luxury pet expo in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, and the purchase is believed to be the largest single dog sale in modern history, eclipsing the previous record set by Red Splash, a red Tibetan mastiff who was sold for 10 million yuan at another expo in 2011.

Zangao -

But, for China's Tibetan mastiff breeders, the last few years have been both the best of times and the worst of times. Quite a few Tibetan mastiffs sold at values equaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a number of the sales surpassed the million dollar mark.

However, as the spotlight started to fade on the breed in China, and Tibetan Mastiffs began to be seen as out of vogue among the wealthy businessmen who had been purchasing them at such high costs, and many of the breeders who had invested enormous amounts of money in their dogs with hopes of becoming rich began struggling to break even.

Sadly, whenever a certain breed becomes part of a cultural fad, the consequences are often swift, steep, and long-lasting for the integrity of the line as a whole. Many become breeders simply because they see the potential for huge profits.

But due to the enormous amounts of money that convinced many novice breeders to hop on to the Tibetan mastiff craze, the downfall of the breed has been one of the most heartbreaking and costly in history.

Perhaps there is no clearer example of the Tibetan mastiff's sharp fall from grace than the horrific scene a number of Beijing-based animal rights activists found when they stopped a truck that was holding a large number of dogs and other creatures as cargo. The activists laid in the street to force the driver to stop, and what they found inside was like something from a nightmare.

Among the 150 dogs forced into the truck's tiny cages were 20 Tibetan mastiffs heading for the slaughterhouse. It appeared as though the dogs had been without food or water for days, and many suffered serious injuries, including broken bones.

If the activists had not intervened, the dogs would have been skinned for leather, broken down, and sold as hotpot ingredients. In a shocking turn of events, the same breed that had sold for over a million dollars only one year prior was now being bought by butchers for a value of around five dollars.

What went so incredibly wrong that a breed once placed in a prominent position in Chinese culture would eventually come to be treated like refuse and sold for scraps? It seems that the breakneck, boom-to-bust nature of the Tibetan mastiff breeding scene in China was the result of two main factors: the pursuit of absurd breed purchases stoked by a fad at its zenith, and a political crackdown focused on weeding out corrupt government officials.

The unsustainable success of the industry became so inflated in such a short period that it inevitably led to a sudden burst, leaving many breeding opportunists stuck with kennels full of dogs that, according to a New York Times interview with a troubled Qinghai breeder named Gombo from last spring, can require around $50 to $60 per day for food alone.

Those costs, coupled with some of the more insane attempts by breeders to beautify their mastiffs through facelifts and silicone injections, parted many opportunistic breeders with large sums of money and left them with no return on their sizable investments.

The inflated market value of Tibetan mastiffs didn't just grab the attention of businessmen hoping to strike it rich as breeders, however. In a move that certainly hastened the downfall of the Chinese Tibetan mastiff trade, Chinese authorities tasked with finding and apprehending corrupt politicians began to view Tibetan mastiff ownership as a red flag for unethical practices.

Since Tibetan mastiff ownership was seen as a status symbol in China during the height of the breed's popularity, some business-minded individuals were allegedly bribing government officials with the dogs in exchange for political support and protection. Naturally, when the authorities came down hard on government officials whose lifestyles appeared overly extravagant, the nervous politicians wanted nothing to do with Tibetan mastiffs. When the breed lost its strategic value as a tool for bribery, interest in the outrageously priced dogs declined.

Unfortunately, the Tibetan mastiff stands to lose the most as a result of the breed's disastrous descent. From living in lavish homes to languishing in cramped cages on a ride toward their final destination, it will probably take years to see the true damage that has been done to this once-beloved and revered breed.

The dog catapulted into stardom partly because of its unmistakable looks, but since the breed has been damaged and diluted by irresponsible breeders, there's no way of knowing if the Tibetan mastiff will be able to bounce back at some point in the future. There's little doubt that the world would seem a bit smaller and less fantastical without these noble, lion-maned, gargantuan dogs in it, but if authorities and concerned citizens do not act soon to protect the integrity of the Tibetan mastiff breed, that smaller, duller world may eventually become a sad reality.

источник: http://everydog.us/blog/2016/april/11/t … n-mastiff/