CHINA-DOG/ACTIVIST China's 65 year-old dog rights campaigner saves over 3,000 dogs from the slaughterhouse

Record ID: 146588

  • Title: CHINA-DOG/ACTIVIST China's 65 year-old dog rights campaigner saves over 3,000 dogs from the slaughterhouse
  • Date: 14th July 2015
  • Summary: YULIN, GUANGXI ZHUANG AUTONOMOUS REGION (FILE - JUNE 21, 2015) (REUTERS) PEOPLE TAKING PICTURES ON SMARTPHONES DOG BEING HELD UP IN THE AIR YANG PUSHING MAN WITH TWO PUPPIES / MAN HOLDING DOG YANG LEAVING MARKET DOGS FOR SALE AT MARKET DOGS IN CAGE TIBETAN MASTIFF IN BACK OF TRUCK (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) DOG OWNER, HAI XU, SAYING: "Because I knew you (Yang and her helpers)
  • Embargoed: 29th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3D368IWI0VZGCA764QA8IAT9Q
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Pensioner Yang Xiaoyun has gone from school teacher to one of China's most well-known and controversial animal rights activists, lauded and vilified for her direct approach to rescuing pooches in distress.
    Over the past twenty years Yang has saved thousands of dogs from the slaughterhouse and the streets, and continues to raise some of them in her home city of Tianjin.
    The former teacher is just one of many members of China's growing middle class now beginning to fight what they see as barbarous abuses of man's best friend, in a country where pets can be rounded up and sold for meat and an animal protection law has yet to be introduced.
    Where Yang differs from most other activists is that she is willing to literally go for broke in trying to rescue her dogs.
    "I sold both homes. And now I've mortgaged my son's home, and I'm in debt 800,000 yuan ($128859.75). Right now it's just that, if you're going to walk this road, then you must provide for them (the dogs) adequately. You can't just let them back into the wild. Things are tough now. I can call upon society, I can call upon the international (community) to help me, but after they've left home, they won't survive. Walking this road--you know that it's a dead end--but you can't go back," she said.
    Now that she has sold her own home, Yang lives in a shack next to one of her dog compounds.
    Yang shot to fame - and notoriety - last year after spending 150,000 yuan ($24,160) to rescue about 350 dogs destined for the chopping block at a dog meat festival in Yulin, Southern China.
    Yang said she spent over 300,000 yuan at this year's festival to save over 500 dogs, many of them physically abused and diseased upon purchase, with some of them barely hanging on to their lives.
    She had originally hoped to set up a home for the rescued dogs near Yulin, she said, but was given a frosty reception by locals, most of whom fiercely support what they see as a cultural tradition no different to consuming Turkeys at Thanksgiving.
    Some within animal rights circles also worry that by buying up dogs en masse, Yang is simply encouraging more people - be it lazy owners or dog snatchers - to sell their animals to compassionate activists.
    The day Yang visited Yulin's dog market, many there said they had come with the explicit hope of selling their dogs to Yang and her helpers.
    "Because I knew you (Yang and her helpers) would be coming I specially came to sell them to you, because I can't afford to keep them, there's nothing I can do, I can't even afford to look after myself, it's so big it eats more than me every meal time, so when I knew you were coming I specially brought them over to sell to you so you can deal with them," said Hai Xu, who added he'd let the dogs go for 3000 yuan each.
    Although countless dog lovers and volunteers are constantly at Yang's side to help her and her dogs, Yang has on occasion found herself at odds with some other animal rights groups.
    Having rushed to a confrontation between activists and a truck filled with dogs on their way to the slaughterhouse, Yang got into an argument with members of another group known as Strong Compassion after they stopped a truck which they claimed was transporting over 500 live dogs to a slaughterhouse on the outskirts of the city.
    Yang said that the volunteers went "too far" when they occupied a busy a highway to stop the truck and smashed its front windshield, prompting local police authorities to escort the vehicle to the slaughterhouse.
    "Right now the volunteers are stopping the truck and not letting them go, you know? Right now, the police, and the bureau of animal control are supporting the (men driving this truck). The volunteers are not letting them leave. Right now (the truck) is taking the dogs to a slaughterhouse," said Yang.
    After stopping the vehicle, Strong Compassion volunteers began climbing the dog's cramped cages in an attempt to free the animals amid heavy police presence. Although the volunteers were able to remove some of the animals' collars and provide water, they were unable to open the cages.
    Yang said that such clashes between volunteers and activists have become more common in recent years in China.
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