BEIJING,
A
Tibetan mastiff puppy has been sold in China for almost Tsh 3.4 billions
($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.
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