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.