Officials in a city in China's Yunnan Province put down nearly 5,000 dogs during its anti-rabies campaign, the Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

As rabies-related deaths reach five in the past three months, the local government of Baoshan City in the province of Yunnan has decided to get rid of almost 5,000 hounds to eradicate the threat of rabies that swept across the canine population in the area.

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According to the report, the local government also vaccinated 100,000 dogs in line with its anti-rabies campaign.

This was done after four were reported dead because of a rabid dog's bite in August and another one was reported in July in the Chinese municipality, particularly in the townships and villages of Longling County, Shidian County, and the Longyang District.

Urgent notice encouraging law enforcers to control the creatures and kill stray dogs have been released by officials of Baoshan City.

In China, rabies is considered a class 2 notifiable illness as cases became rare during the past decade.

Following a series of dog attacks in 2006, at least 16 people had died in Shandong Province in eastern China.

Meanwhile CNN reported that China has been known to resort to killing domestic animals in order to stem the rabies problem, a move which has garnered attention from some animal rights advocate.

"You could see the terror in their eyes and they were very afraid of people," said Liu, a Yinchuan Stray Animals Home volunteer, describing an instance when they found at least 100 stray dogs being buried alive in northern China's Inner Mongolia.

After failing to dig the dogs up, the stray animals home group returned with an excavator the following Friday and were able to dig six dead dogs, leaving many more missing.

The group was contacted by locals who found the dogs on August 27 and tried but failed to get them out. The residents were not identified in the reports as they requested anonymity.

TagsYunnan province, rabies, anti-rabies campaign, stray dogs, vaccinated, vaccine, vaccination, Dogs, Yunnan