A pet food company in Shanghai is aiming to make the human and stray animal populations in the city safer through a new guide that can be acquired for as little as 0.1 yuan.

Pawsome, a Shanghai-based fresh pet food company, had in early April placed 5,000 bilingual pet guides in about 180 pet-related businesses around the city.

Apart from recommendations for pet-friendly cafes, pet products, grooming salons and diets, the 190-page guide also contains useful information regarding behavioral training, boarding services, adoption procedures and pet ownership knowledge.

But despite all this effort and spending close to 83,000 yuan ($12,344) to design and produce the guide, Pawsome isn't looking to profit from the publication. In fact, it won't even be receiving a single cent.

Those who are interested in getting their hands on the guide simply need to scan a QR code printed on the back of the publication and make a donation to Blue Ribbon, which Gloeckner says is the only legalized pet charity in the city. Pet owners who prefer an online version can also get a copy via the PawsomeNutri WeChat account. The minimum that anyone can donate is 0.1 yuan.

Founded in 2012, Blue Ribbon is a nonprofit organization that performs Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) for stray animals, primarily cats.

"Making the book donation-based encourages more people to pick it up. This is more important as what we're aiming to do is to educate the public," says Gloeckner.

Benefits of pet education

The first issue that Pawsome wants to raise awareness about is the effectiveness of TNR in controlling the numbers of stray animals in the city. Wile there are no official statistics regarding the stray population in the city, many of those familiar with the situation believe that numbers have been growing.

Zhou Lei, the founder of Blue Ribbon, points out several factors that are behind the growth in stray animal numbers: the rise in spending power, people getting influenced by foreign movies and television dramas, and the desire for a companion to help cope with the growing pressures of city life.

Legal studies researcher He Hairen from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences had in a 2018 interview with China Daily also connected the rise of pet ownership to the growing problem of abandonment, which in turn exacerbates the stray animal situation.

Last year, the China Pet Products Association reported that pet ownership in China was growing by 15 percent a year. Online pet forum Goumin.com also published a white paper on the pet industry stating that the nation's dog and cat pet market had exceeded 170 billion yuan in value, and that pet owners were expected to spend more than 5,000 yuan per pet, a 15 percent increase from the year before.

According to Zhou, controlling the number of stray cats through TNR would reduce the spread of diseases and the amount of noise generated when animals mate. This in turn keeps both the human and animal communities safer.

"There is also a food safety issue involved. TNR reduces the stray cat population and this lessens the risk of unscrupulous food vendors using the animals as food," he says.

But the most pressing problem that the Pawsome pet guide wants to address is that of pet ownership ethics and etiquette.

Proper etiquette for a dog owner includes leashing the animal in public and picking up after them.

One of the most notable incidents related to this was when a dog owner in Hangzhou assaulted a woman who kicked his pet last year.

According to media reports, the latter kicked the dog, which was not leashed, as it was harassing her two children on the street.

The incident resulted in the authorities introducing a curfew for dog-walking and prohibiting the animal from entering public areas such as markets and green spaces.

Over in Shanghai, it is also common to see elderly people walk their dogs off-leash. Along the promenade at the West Bund, park wardens can often be seen telling pet owners to leash their dogs.

"I personally can understand why the government would implement such laws. This is a safety issue. When people who are afraid of dogs are confronted by a dog that is not leashed, problems are going to occur," says Gloeckner.

"It's not the dog's fault that it's running all over the place and scaring people. Dogs behave like 4-yearold kids. They don't know any better. That's why we need to leash and train them."

With regard to ethics, education would also go a long way to changing some people's attitude toward animals, says Nidhin Nair, an animal rescuer in Shanghai.

Earlier this year, Nair managed to identify the owner of a lost Alaskan malamute after picking it up from the police station. What happened next left him at a loss for words.

"When I called the owner and told her that I found her dog, she started laughing and sounded surprise that it was still alive. She said the dog was abandoned about a month ago because she simply couldn't afford to keep him anymore," he says.

"On another occasion, at a pet shelter in Minhang district in Shanghai, I came across a woman who said she wanted to abandon her dog because she was pregnant. She even tried to justify her actions, saying that she was paying the shelter to take the dog in and not just leaving it on the streets. To these people, dogs and cats are just commodities."

But the mistreatment of animals does not just affect the pets - it also has the potential to create rifts in society. In 2016, animal activists in Chengdu publicly beat up a dog owner who was found to have recorded a video of himself abusing his pet before sharing the footage on his QQ social network.

China currently does not have laws pertaining to the protection of pets. In an interview with Sixth Tone, Zhang Xiaohai of Beijing Loving Animals Foundation was quoted as saying that "an anti-animal abuse law was proposed by scholars in 2009, but it hasn't been scheduled on the legislative agenda yet".

Growing awareness levels

Despite the occurrence of such incidents, members of the community generally feel that the awareness of animal welfare in China has greatly improved over the years.

Renata Mossor, an animal rescuer from Shenzhen in Guangdong province, points out that there has been an increasing number of rescuers, vets and officials getting involved with controlling the stray population through TNR in the city.

"I also like the fact that there's now an official requirement for dogs to get their rabies vaccination and be registered. These are both free and quite easy to obtain in Shenzhen," says Mossor, who is one of the contributing authors of the Pawsome pet guide.

"The awareness level is much higher than five years ago when I arrived in China. The truly amazing thing is that the city opened its first pet park where dog owners can walk their dogs freely."

Zhou says the same is happening in Shanghai. When he first started Blue Ribbon seven years ago, he only had four other volunteers who went around the city with him performing TNR.

Today, his organization has 45 volunteers, one third of whom are professionals such as vets, pet photographers and pet trainers. Blue Ribbon has been sterilizing more than 1,000 stray cats since 2016.

The number of animal welfare communities has increased, too. According to Zhou, there are currently 15 such communities in the city, up from just one in 2015.

"Based on my personal experience, the living conditions of stray animals are gradually improving. Moving forward, it would be good if the government can take the lead in addressing the issues related to strays and pet ownership," he says.

While it is common to see people and their dogs along the streets in Shanghai, the busy walkways aren't the safest places where the animal can roam around. In Pawsome's pet guide, 14 pet-friendly parks located all over Shanghai, including on Chongming Island, are recommended. In some of these parks, dogs are even free to roam the premises without needing to be leashed.

Pawsome has independently verified that these 14 venues are pet-friendly. The company also recommends that people have their pet licenses with them whenever they are out for a walk with their dogs.

Among the parks listed is the highly popular West Bund Greenland area where pet owners and their dogs are a common sight. On weekends, the scenic site becomes a vibrant gathering place for people to do photography, jog along the promenade and fly kites. The neighboring Pets' Playground is also an ideal place for pet owners as they are permitted to let their dogs off the leash.

Spanning 2,500 square meters, the Pets' Playground features different enclosures for dogs of different sizes to roam freely within. The area also provides free plastic bags for dog owners to pick up after their pets. According to an article by Shanghai Daily, this area has been lauded by residents and pet owners.

Another popular venue is the Shanghai Sculpture Park in Songjiang district where there are pockets of secluded space for dogs to roam freely. Here, dogs can also play with sand and water at the adjoining beach.

Pet owners who like ancient architecture could also bring their dogs to the Hanxiang Water Expo in Minhang district. Located in Maqiao town, this charming parkland features an ancient bridge museum and old trees.

There is also no shortage of locations for pet owners that live outside of central Shanghai. In Baoshan district, for example, dog lovers often congregate at the tranquil Meilan Lake where people often set up tents along the shore and have a barbecue.

Nature lovers with pets can also bring their dogs to Shanghai Bay National Forest Park in Fengxian district. Here, visitors can find a wide variety of floral and fauna while allowing their dogs a good workout amid nature.

Over on Chongming Island, located a two-hour drive away from downtown Shanghai, the Mingzhu Lake Park along the Sanhua Highway features lush green spaces that are home to a host of amenities such as an ecological tourism center, a leisure club and a museum.

Another notable park is the Changxing Island Country Park where pet owners can pick oranges and enjoy the fresh air and scenery while walking their dogs.