In response to three deaths in April from rabies and 360 reported dog bites this year, local officials in Yunnan Province, China, ordered the extermination of all dogs regardless of rabies vaccination status, with the exception of military and police canines. Since the start of the campaign on 25 July 2005, a total of 54,429 dogs in Mouding County have been killed by clubbing, hanging, electrocution, or drugs, according to the Shanghai Daily. On Thursday, officials in Shandong Province announced that they soon will kill all dogs within five kilometers of the villages where sixteen people have died from rabies in 2006. The dog-culling programs do not violate Chinese law or international laws because those laws only protect endangered species. The cullings do defy the conclusion by the World Health Organization in June 2005 that dog destruction efforts are ineffective and that the elimination of rabies requires mass vaccination programs. To control the threat to human health by rabies, China is encouraged to pursue a vaccination campaign in accordance with international standards and guidelines and to seek the assistance of international agencies, such as the OIE and WHO, to develop a long-term, integrated strategy. More