dogs

"I was praying someone would come before Monday," the man said.

He and three other Zimbabwean workers were showing animal activists round a site in West Nicholson where Chinese nationals had already eaten three dogs.

"Their dog meat runs out on Monday," he added.

A fourth dog was there. He didn't know the horrid fate that was sure to be his, if the vets hadn't intervened. The Chinese labourers -- they have been contracted to work on a massive expansion programme by the main local cellphone company -- have a particularly cruel way of slaughtering the dogs: they hang them up in a tree by a string so they defecate and then hit them over the head with an iron bar.

The dog wagged its tail. Trusting. Too trusting.

It may have been bought from a villager: the Chinese are said to offer 10 US per dog. That's more than a chicken, which 'only' fetches 6 US. Tempting, if you're living in abject poverty. The local headman was (gratifyingly) furious with what's happening: he insisted on accompanying the activists on their mission.

Happily, the dog was rescued.

But the network expansion programme is nationwide: presumably Chinese labourers aren't confined to West Nicholson. How many other dogs are in danger?