Dog lovers in the Chinese city of Wenshan in Yunnan province have been banned from walking their pets in daylight hours.

With more Chinese affluence and the preference for smaller families, dogs are becoming more popular as pets. However, the new rulings will give prospective owners ‘paws’ for thought.

City officials have ruled against man’s best friend being walked between the hours of 7am and 10pm. Taking them to parks, shopping centres, sports facilities and other public spaces is also strictly off-limits.

The new rules also stipulate that pet pooches can only be walked by adults and that leads must conform to a maximum one-metre length.

According to China digital news site, Pear Video, a Wenshan urban management official said the order was introduced following several residents’ complaints that they had been attacked by dogs.

Canine controls are in place in many regions across China, Beijing for example apparently banning large dogs from the city centre, but Wenshan leads the way with its latest crackdown.

The dog-unfriendly approach is reported as being a throwback to Communist China founder, Mao Zedong’s belief that the furry critters are a “bourgeois affectation”. This has no doubt been dismissed by pet lovers as pure dogma.

There is still a lot of love for the four-legged friend in China. A dog, loyal to its owner, has been filmed waiting on a busy roadside in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, for more than 80 days after its owner died there.

The desperate scene has tugged the heartstrings of China’s vast online community, footage of the pining pet having been viewed more than 1.4 million times on the popular social media platform, Sina Weibo.