Man detained for trying to break girlfriend’s dog out of quarantine

A local resident has been detained for five days for entering a restricted area at Shanghai Pudong International Airport to retrieve his girlfriend's quarantined dog, local media reported Thursday.

The intruder, surnamed Zhang, arrived at the airport in his Porsche on May 22 to pick up his girlfriend, who was coming back from a trip to Italy, according to a report in the Shanghai Morning Post.

Zhang, born in 1988, spotted his distraught girlfriend, surnamed Wang, who complained that airport staff had quarantined the dog she had brought back from Italy, and she would have to wait 30 days to get it back, as per quarantine regulations, the report said.

Wang did not declare the dog at customs and apparently tried to sneak it out of the airport.

"Customs and quarantine staff found a pet dog when they X-rayed her backpack as she left the arrival area," said an officer from the political division of the Airport Bureau of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau. The officer asked not to be named.

According to national regulations, passengers can bring pets into the country, but must declare them at customs and present official quarantine and rabies vaccination certificates from the country where they got the animal.

After hearing that his girlfriend's dog was seized, Zhang got angry and wormed his way through the bars separating the secure arrival zone from the airport's waiting area, the report said. He took his girlfriend back to quarantine office, weaving his way through the flow of exiting passengers.

Once in the office, Zhang exchanged a few words with the staff, grabbed the bag with the dog and walked out.

Surveillance camera footage showed that the couple just kept walking as police tried to stop them from leaving, according to the report.

Police ended up arresting Zhang for entering a restricted area, the officer said.

Explaining his actions, Zhang said he thought it would be a real hassle to have to return for the dog because he lived far away from the airport.