Global Animal Protection First Action

The first official rescue campaign of the Global Animal Protection organization succeeded with the first victory!

When the animal protection volunteers arrived at the Zoumaling Farmers Market in Wuhan early in the morning, there were only three dogs left out of the five dogs that were originally kept in cages. The iron hooks hanging in the air and the wet bloodstains on the ground told it all...

This farmer’s market was discovered a few months ago that there were dealings of slaughtered live dogs, and the sign of "Dogs Killed alive" was openly displayed on the side of the road. The three dogs still in the cage witnessed their companions being hung up and killed right in front of them. The volunteers who rushed to the scene quickly called the police, hoping to save the remaining three dogs. Upon arrival of the police, the volunteers were however not allowed to take away the remaining three dogs. They were told that the dogs were the private property of the dog dealers. After some heated debates almost leading to a fierce confrontation, the volunteers had to once again pay for the three dogs at a price of RMB12.5 per 500 gram, before leaving them temporarily in a pet shop.

Just a week ago, the volunteers spent nearly 4,000 RMB to buy five dogs that were about to be slaughtered. The funds were contributed by members in the "Warm Heart Towards Sun-Home returning" group initiated by Dr. Xiaofeng Yang. The five rescued dogs were later sent to the local animal protection base by volunteers. A fellow Buddhist offered to pay for the dog’s living expenses which was as much as RMB 1,000 per month.

However, this kind of purchase is really not the ideal solution. It is in fact a bottomless pit. As long as the stall for selling slaughtered dogs is not banned, butchers will continue to kill and sell dogs, and dog dealers will continue to steal and poison dogs. The volunteers reported this incident to local authorities repeatedly and called the mayor’s hotline to no avail. Because there is no such a legislation in place, even if police is present upon receiving the incident report, they would not know how to deal with it. In the end, the volunteers could only end up buying the dogs in order to save them, which undoubtedly would become an opportunity exploited by butchers to make money down the road. Due to the devastating outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan at the beginning of year 2020, cats and dogs are prohibited by the government from being slaughtered and sold as companion animals starting from May of the year. Nevertheless, since the Animal Protection Law has not been legislated yet, this kind of dog killing, stealing, poisoning and dog meat dealings have never stopped and have been occurring continuously.

This time, the volunteers received another call for help, which claimed that once again five dogs appeared in the iron cage of that booth, urging the volunteers to rescue the dogs quickly. When everyone arrived early in the morning, they saw what was described in the beginning of this article.

Just the night before, Rachel, the domestic rescue leader of "Global Animal Protection" in China, had quickly formed a rescue team. The distant and on-site volunteers developed a series of rescue plans. As the first step of their plan, an overseas team member representing an international non-profit organization called the mayor’s hotline attempting to lodge a complaint, but no one at the hotline understood English. Then the next plan was that a domestic volunteer of Global Animal Protection in China called the mayor’s hotline making a statement in Chinese: “We are the volunteers of an International Animal Rescue NGO in China. The person in charge of our organization received some photos and videos revealing that there are illegal dog slaughter and dog meat sales in the Zoumaling Farmer’s market, besides we have many photos and videos that recorded the on-site scenes . The "Global Animal Protection" organization will keep track of the progress of this incident closely’...

Through collaborative efforts of the entire team, the domestic volunteers finally received a response from the government the day after reporting the incident: ‘According to your report, the law enforcement agency has warned the stall owner and asked him to write a letter of guarantee. 12.5 kilograms of dog meat and receipts for dog meat trading were also found at the scene, and the relevant authorities will file a case for investigation’.

The volunteers also added to their report that additionally there were three restaurants found selling dog meat steam pot dishes nearby the farmer’s market, and they were hoping to invoke government’s support to put the selling to stop. In response to their report, the mayor’s hotline representatives promised to get back to them as soon as possible. After receiving the great news, the team members of Global Animal Protection all cheered with joy. Almost none of them slept well the night before, worrying too much about the five poor little lives. Thanks to the relentless efforts of domestic team in China, this was a courageous and well strategized rescue event, which not only rescued three dogs, but also eliminated the potential recurrence of the dog slaughtering and dog dealing in the future. It must be acknowledged that this was truly a remarkable victory they scored! Everyone in the team couldn't help but credit Dr. Yang with heartfelt praise, who had a great vision in this rescue movement. As the initiator of "Global Animal Protection" organization, his profound insight was admirable, and as a doctor he managed to save and protect lives in a different way through animal rescue. We are also sincerely grateful to the Chinese domestic volunteers and on-site rescuers. It was their dedication that made this perfect rescue campaign possible.

#Rescue