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For decades Shanghai residents have been allowed only one child, but now authorities are demanding they keep only one dog. A crackdown on dog ownership will start this Sunday and dog lovers are howling mad.

Once banned by Mao Zedong as a bourgeois pastime, pet dogs are now prolific in wealthy Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

But on Sunday May 15th, Shanghai authorities started to enforce a one-dog policy, forcing pet owners to give away unlicensed dogs. They will also refuse registration to anyone who already owns one.

The move is a crackdown on 600,000 unregistered dogs in the city. It's in response to rising complaints about abandoned pets, soiled public spaces and barking in crowded apartment districts.

Dog owners will have to pay up to 500 yuan, or 77 U.S. dollars, a year to keep their pets registered.

But outraged pet owners are seeking ways to dodge the new policy.

[Guo Huiying, Dog Owner]:
"The new policy says each family can only have one dog, but we've been living together for five years. They are family to me. I can't just give one of them up. I am thinking about keeping one of them at my relative's house."

Local media put Shanghai's pet dog population at 800,000, with only a quarter registered.

Dog owners blamed expensive registration fees of 2000 yuan—more than 300 U.S. dollars—for not registering their dogs before.