Security guards take care of residents' pet dogs while they are away. Photo: Sina

A 75-year-old man was bitten to death by four sheepdogs in Northeast China on Saturday, the latest example of the problem of dog management in Chinese cities.

The man, Ma Yushu, from Hailin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, was blocked by four ferocious sheepdogs during a morning walk in the street and died after he was bitten in multiple places on his body, according to thepaper.cn.

The dogs had been taken by local police, thepaper.cn reported, citing Guo Zhangqiang, son of the dog host.

"Ma's postmortem examination report has not come out yet, and the case is still under investigation," a police officer surnamed Sun in the public security bureau of Hailin told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Dog owners need to apply for a license to raise large dogs in the downtown, according to thepaper.cn. 

Guo admitted to thepaper.cn that his father did not have a dog raising license. 

Guo said the dogs were usually locked up in the yard of his parents??house. They did not know how the dogs got out of the yard and attacked Ma. 

Many cases of dog attacks have been reported in China last year. Two police officers beat a golden retriever to death in Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province, for attacking at least four people, including a 66-year-old man, thepaper.cn reported in January 2018.

Chinese cities, including Shanghai, are taking action to strengthen pet dog management amid a growing number of attack cases. 

Shanghai police were reported to have been developing a new mobile app to facilitate dog keepers in the city to register for licenses and receive vaccines for their pets, local newspaper Xinmin Evening News reported November 2018.

There are over 180,000 registered pet dogs in households in Shanghai. Local police accepted and heard 10,639 complaints about dog management from January to September 2018, including 3,160 cases involving dogs without a license, according to the Xinmin Evening News.