Animal Rescue Journal (Five)

In the early morning on April 4, 2021, the day of the Chinese Ching Ming Festival, GAPI rescue volunteer Rachel received a help request from GAPI volunteers based in Yunnan province. In a small county near Wenshan, Yunnan, someone found two dogs about to be slaughtered right in front of a dog meat restaurant. One was an Akita dog and the other was an Alaskan. The two poor dogs were kept in a small cage, apparently not knowing the grim fate they were facing.

The Akita dog wore a collar around its neck, which made it obvious that it was a pet dog. It was probably less than eight months old. The Alaskan dog seemed to be very young too, around one year old. The two dogs were very young yet kept very clean. Therefore we thought they should be pet dogs and once the apples of their owners’ eyes. Most likely they wandered away and were lost or they were stolen by someone, then sold here by dog dealers. After receiving the call, we reached out to Dr. Yang immediately, who responded with one firm word ‘rescue’ without the slightest hesitation.

GAPI volunteers went ahead right away to start a lengthy bargain with the restaurant owner, who insisted on selling the dogs at a high price and refused to compromise at all. In order to rescue the dogs as soon as possible, we settled the purchase with a pricey payment and quickly took the dogs to Wenshan GAPI animal shelter located in Yunnan.

The two dogs were very cute and beautiful. The Alaskan dog is a girl, and the Akita is a boy. As soon as the cage was opened, the two clever dogs seemed to know that they were rescued. They were walking around in the base cheerfully to celebrate their newly gained freedom. It was hard to imagine how they were brought to such a remote place like Wenshan, Yunnan. Wenshan is known as the “Yulin” of Yunnan province, and is notorious for having dog meat restaurants all over the place (Yulin is another city which is famous for its dog meat festival). If we hadn't rescued these two dogs at the time, they should have become a dish on the dining table in some restaurant by now.

Knowing that the dogs were successfully sent to the rescue base, it was a huge relief to the animal protection volunteers both domestic and abroad. They immediately began to launch a nationwide search for the dog owners by broadcasting the information on various social media platforms.

These two dogs were extremely lucky to be saved by us, but we can’t help thinking that how many stolen dogs like them had to go through hellish suffering! In March 2021, an incident of a cat named Huang Diandian located at Jiangmen, Guangdong province, attracted national attention. Some cat dealers broke into a residential area in Shanghai and stole the cat. Then they took it overnight to Jiangmen, 1500 kilometers away from Shanghai. If the cat were not found in time because of the GPS tracker it carried, it would have been killed. Seemingly, the incident revealed a deep dark animal meat supply chain. We believe that the story behind the two lost dogs is very similar to the one of cat Huang Diandian. Perhaps the owners let the dog off leash accidentally, or perhaps dogs wandered away and got lost themselves and were unfortunately caught by some dog dealer, putting their life in a grief danger.

We would like to call on everyone: please hold the leash tight for your dog, and don't let the dog leave your sight. Most of the time, the leash is the dog's life-saving rope. It’s strongly recommended for the dog owners to apply for a dog certificate and microchip for their dogs, so that in the situation when dogs get lost accidentally, they can get help and sent back home to their owners as long as they run into a kind person.

Up to this point, the two dogs have completed the basic quarantine and are in good physical condition. They will soon be sent to the hospital for vaccinations, but there is no response yet as for their owners’ information. Wenshan is a remote and rural place. There is no facility available to detect whether these two dogs are microchipped. We can only hope that when the dogs are sent to the animal hospital for vaccinations, there is a way that they can be checked to see if the owner’s information is available. Although we hope that the dogs could return to their original families that they are familiar with, we are also open to adoption to provide the dogs a loving home as soon as possible.

Despite the fact that the COVID free clinic program keeps Dr. Yang and the volunteers very busy, they are still paying close attention to the status of these two cute lives. These two lucky fur kids are currently living in Wenshan GAPI animal shelter, every day being well fed and without the slightest worry. Although the shelter only has basic facilities due to the limitation of its remote geographic location, such as no water supply system being present, there are endless possibilities of bright future for these dogs to look forward to!

Dr. Yang named these two dogs with cute Chinese names. The Akita boy is called ‘XingFu’ and the Alaskan girl is called ‘MeiMan’, meaning happiness and perfect contentment. All of us are hoping that the two dogs will live happily ever after! For people who are willing to adopt the two dogs, we hope you would embrace them as part of your family and provide them with a kind and caring home. We thank you for your kindness and would be deeply grateful.

Please see the other story about this two dogs at our Wechat public platform：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LOho952GCzbuH7NBJe-c4w