About 90,000 people in Beijing have been attacked by dogs and cats in the first six months of this year, up almost 34 percent for the same period last year, the government said.

Dogs off the leash were blamed for most of the attacks. A small number of people were also attacked by cats, mostly scratches that led to swelling and fever, according to the Beijing management office for pets.

Registration and vaccination are not mandatory for cats.

A spokesman said stray dogs and dogs being walked off the leash by their owners remained a nuisance.

Many streets have repeatedly been cleared of stray dogs since last year.

"Dog owners face fines for walking their pets off the leash, but many ignore the rule because it's not possible to deploy law enforcement personnel in every community. The number of pet dogs is also growing," the spokesman said.

Beijing has about 660,000 registered dogs and the figure has been growing by nearly 10,000 a month, the municipal public security bureau said.

The city introduced a "one family, one dog" policy last year and launched a nationwide campaign against unregistered dogs. Last year, 3,070 people in China died of rabies.

Rabies has headed the list of fatal infectious diseases in China for more than a year. In the first five months of this year, it has claimed 1,043 lives across the country.

Beijing has so far reported two deaths from rabies - in February and this month. The victims, a villager in the outlying Daxing District and a chef in the eastern Chaoyang District, refused to be treated after they were bitten by dogs, health authorities said.

Last year, 140,000 people in Beijing sought medical treatment after being attacked by dogs or cats.

Rabies is an acute viral infection that is nearly always fatal if left untreated. It can be transmitted by the bite of an infected animal, usually a dog.

It kills about 50,000 people in the world each year.

(China Daily July 24, 2007)