(AFP) - 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.
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"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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