Animal Rescue Journal

Rescue brief on October 29th

At noon, the person in charge of GAPI in China received a request for help from a WeChat friend that they found 6 dogs barking in cages in a Wuhan wet market. When volunteers arrived, there were only 5 left. A pool of blood was still wet on the ground nearby. There were a lot of roadside food stalls and hotpot restaurants nearby the wet market. One wouldn't need to think to know where the other dogs were sold.

The person in charge immediately contacted a friend in Wuhan, and at the same time contacted a volunteer of GAPI Returning Home Group at the Wuhan stray dog shelter. Because the wet market was in a remote place, when Wuhan volunteers found the owner of the stall, it was already over 7 pm. After some bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the 5 dogs to our volunteers at the price of 20 yuan per half kilo.

Many thanks to the two volunteers who rescued the dogs on the frontline at such late time. Without them, the five lives would have left the world on the second day. The pile of blood on the ground was a silent but dazzling accusation. Perhaps because they saw the miserable experience of their companion, when the volunteers went to rescue them, the five poor doggies huddled together and were trembling. One even wanted to bite our volunteer for self-protection.

Buddha says all sentient beings used to be our parents and siblings in past lives. These dogs have a wretched fate in their current life. The team of GAPI Animal Protection will take the responsibility of caring for them until helping them find owners who would take good care of them. On the same day of rescue, the five lucky doggies were sent to the local stray dog care base. The living conditions of the base are simple and crude, and can only give these poor furry little ones basic food and shelter, guaranteeing that they won’t be killed and put on the dining table. But finding a really caring home for them is our biggest wish of the GAPI team.

Up to now, the five doggies rescued from the wet market are living in the base in good conditions. These lucky ones have good karmic connections with us all. We hope they live the rest of their lives in safety and happiness. We named them An’an, Xiang’zi, Tuan’tuan, Stone, and Yuesheng. The especially lively one in the video is our Xiangzi. It’s hard to imagine what fear they underwent in those horrible days.

When winter approaches, many poor furry little ones will be put on dining tables. Wuhan volunteers found that in the wet market where they saved the five dogs, there were several stalls where people were killing dogs, peeling off the skin and selling their meat. The owner of the stall told our volunteers that he often received dogs sent by other people, many of which were pet dogs; some of them went astray; some were stolen. Via him they were sent to nearby food stalls and hot pot restaurants. One can imagine how many poor little things lose their life in such a way. We can only save limited dogs. How to stop this cruel killing is the most important issue. As many stray dogs have various viruses, eating them is extremely unhygienic. We contacted some Wuhan volunteers to report the situation to the legal department, and gained support from some friends outside Wuhan and overseas. Before the relevant animal protection law is introduced, this is the only way we can take, to unite the international animal protection organization, to advocate China to proceed with animal protection law as soon as possible, so that these poor animals can get the basic protection.

Now matter what, we will do our best to protect these homeless animals.