A puppy sleeps in a small wire cage at a sidewalk pet market in Beijing

A puppy sleeps in a small wire cage at a sidewalk pet market in downtown Beijing September 10, 2009. Raising and owning dogs was banned under the rule of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong as a bourgeois pastime, but with China's growing affluence and pursuit of Western trends, greater numbers of middle-class families have become avid pet owners in a booming social trend. UPI/Stephen Shaver