A pet dog is taken an injection at a clinic in Lianyungang, East China's Jiangsu Province. (Photo: VCG)

The government of Central China's Hubei Province issued "the strictest-ever" regulation on raising dogs, which includes dogs no higher than 45-centimeter and Chinese rural dogs in residential areas.

The Hubei provincial public security department said on Tuesday that citizens are banned from raising dogs taller than 45 centimeters in residential areas, and that they cannot raise 35 listed breeds of dogs or cross breeds of the listed pedigrees, which includes the Mastiff, Samoyed, German shepherd and Chinese rural dogs.

The police said that they would test the regulations for a year while they allow the public to provide recommendations through emails and letters from Wednesday to Tuesday.

Discussions on the ban gripped Chinese social media, with the related topic viewed more than 15 million times. 

Some support the regulations, saying it is good for people who fear dogs and could help reduce the number of dog attacks and ease conflicts between dog owners and bystanders. 

However, others said some large dogs such as golden retrievers and Labradors are very gentle while some small dogs are aggressive, so the ban should not rely only on the dog's height. They said that the authorities should exempt large gentle dogs and the indigenous Chinese rural dog from the ban list.

Despite the controversy over the ban, regulating uncivilized behavior in raising dogs and correcting citizens' illegal habit of raising and walking dogs are necessary, Chen Zhao, a public security officer from Jinan in East China's Shandong Province, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"The key is to educate dog keepers to raise dogs in a civilized and legal way," Chen said. 

Many citizens love dogs while others fear dogs, so striking a balance in mediating the conflicts tests the law enforcers' ability, Chen noted.