A Tibetan mastiff puppy has been sold in China for almost
$2 million, a report said Wednesday, in what could be the most
expensive dog sale ever.
A property developer paid 12 million yuan ($1.9 million) for the
one-year-old golden-haired mastiff at a "luxury pet" fair Tuesday
in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the Qianjiang Evening News
reported.
"They have lion's blood and are top-of-the-range mastiff studs,"
the dog's breeder Zhang Gengyun was quoted as telling the paper,
adding that another red-haired canine had sold for 6 million
yuan.
Enormous and sometimes ferocious, with round manes lending them a
passing resemblance to lions, Tibetan mastiffs have become a prized
status symbol among China's wealthy, sending prices
skyrocketing.
The golden-haired animal was 80 centimetres (31 inches) tall, and
weighed 90 kilograms (nearly 200 pounds), Zhang said, adding that
he was sad to sell the animals. Neither was named in the
report.
"Pure Tibetan mastiffs are very rare, just like our nationally
treasured pandas, so the prices are so high," he said.
One red mastiff named "Big Splash" reportedly sold for 10 million
yuan ($1.5 million) in 2011, in the most expensive dog sale then
recorded.
The buyer at the Zhejiang expo was said to be a 56-year-old
property developer from Qingdao who hopes to breed dogs himself,
according to the report.
The newspaper quoted the owner of a mastiff breeding website as
saying that last year one animal sold for 27 million yuan at a fair
in Beijing.
But an industry insider surnamed Xu told the paper that the high
prices may be the result of insider agreements among breeders to
boost their dogs' worth.
"A lot of the sky-high priced deals are just breeders hyping each
other up, and no money actually changes hands," Xu said.
Owners say the mastiffs, descendants of dogs used for hunting by
nomadic tribes in central Asia and Tibet, are fiercely loyal and
protective.
