Zt < New year brings hope for Chinese dogs>

New year brings hope for Chinese dogs
http://www.animalsasia.org/index.php?UID=OCMBEQ6OOVL
Animals Asia helps save 149 dogs from illegal meat trader

Animals Asia Foundation is funding the rescue of 149 dogs from an illegal trader in Sichuan province. The dogs, crammed together in tiny cages, had been bound for a meat market in the southern city of Guangzhou, China’s dog-eating capital.




Education Manager Rainbow Zhu and Animals Asia team unload the dog cages from the truck.
The dogs were confiscated from the trading station in Pengzhou, 30 kilometres north of Chengdu, by the local Animal Husbandry Bureau after it discovered the trader was operating without a licence. The officials were notified of the situation by Mr Qiao Wei, the operator of Qiming Rescue Centre in Chengdu, who had received a tip-off about the dogs.

All 149 dogs were taken to the rescue centre yesterday (31 December) and released into the quarantine area.


ill helps to release dogs that were squeezed into the tiny cages.
A truck containing cages crammed with petrified dogs arrives at Qi Ming rescue centre.

Animals Asia’s Founder and CEO, Jill Robinson, along with a team from the foundation’s Moon Bear Rescue centre in Chengdu, including Education Manager Rainbow Zhu, vet Leanne Clark and vet nurse Emily Gorman, were at the shelter when the dogs arrived.

“The dogs were in an appalling condition, many of them very thin and clearly in shock,” Ms Robinson said. “I hate to think how long they had been in those cages, many of them packed in so tightly that they were piled on top of each other. We heard terrible screams coming from some of the cages, where terrified dogs were biting each other.”


A terrified dog waits to be released.

She said many of the dogs were wearing collars and were possibly stolen pets; some were pure-breeds, including two dalmatians and a chocolate labrador; others had been collected as strays from the streets. She appealed to families in Pengzhou that had lost their dogs to contact the rescue centre.

Animals Asia’s vet team administered emergency medical treatment to the dogs that were most in need and euthanised one dog, who was suffering from distemper. Health-checks are continuing today (1 January).

Animals Asia had recently built the spacious quarantine area at Qiming Rescue Centre to provide temporary shelter for dogs it had rescued from the Sichuan earthquake. “Luckily most of those dogs have since been adopted or reclaimed by their families,” Ms Robinson said. “So we have room to house these new dogs while they recover from this terrible trauma and await adoption.”

The foundation will provide ongoing medical care and funding for dog food.

Education Manager Rainbow Zhu said It\'s hard to see how these dogs have been treated, and worse to think there are millions more elsewhere being abused in this way. Though there are no laws yet against dog eating in China, it\'s great to see there are 149 of them being successfully rescued today with the big assistance from the local authority.

Ms Robinson applauded the authorities for their quick action, which meant the dogs had been spared from the terror of a four-day journey to Guangzhou with no food or water and a brutal death; dogs are often slowly beaten to death in the misguided belief that “torture equals taste”.


Animals Asia\'s vet nurse Emily Gorman opens a cage of dogs.

“This is a wonderful example of Chinese people standing up and saying ‘no’ to the cruel dog-eating trade,” Ms Robinson said. “It is a great way to start 2009!”

Dogs are eaten in China year-round, but more so during the cold winter months.