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AP
In this photo taken on April 16, 2011 and released by Capital Animals Welfare Association, dogs rescued by animal lovers are released from their truck at a shelter in Beijing, China.
BEIJING – Traffic was running smoothly on a highway just outside Beijing last Friday – until a man noticed an enormous truck carrying stacks of caged dogs.
Mr. An, an animal rights activist and volunteer at Beijing-based China Small Animal Protection Association, saw the cramped, whimpering dogs and decided to do something. His decision ended up saving the lives of 580 canines, who were on their way to the northeastern city of Changchun, where they were to be slaughtered and eventually served for dinner.
An, who refuses to reveal his full name or profession, swerved his car several times to intercept the truck, forcing it to slow down and stop. He then called a friend for help. The friend published a plea on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform popular in China, and soon more than 100 animal rights activists had gathered with water, medicine and food for the dogs, who the truck driver later admitted were headed for restaurants in Changchun.
They sprayed water on the truck to cool the dogs down and fed them, while others argued with the truck driver and requested to see his quarantine license, which is required for transporting live animals. One dog gave birth to five puppies through the metal bars of her cage. Many of the dogs were wearing collars or chains, making the volunteers suspicious that they had been stolen from their owners, which the driver denied.
The scuffle attracted the police, who said the animal lovers had no right to stop the truck or traffic. But the dispute over the dogs’ fate continued for another 15 hours. Finally, around 1 a.m., a solution was reached: Two groups there, pet company LeepPet Holding Corp. and animal rights group Shangshan Animal Fund, agreed to buy the dogs from the driver for $17,690.
Most of the dogs are now at the China Small Animal Protection Association, in the western suburbs of Beijing. Many are not in good condition though – a few have already died, and 68 were in Dongxing Animal Hospital Tuesday and being treated for dehydration, various physical injuries and canine distemper, a highly contagious virus.
‘It’s cruel to eat dogs?’
The animal rescue has sparked a debate in China.
Lianyue, a renowned newspaper columnist and an active blogger, said on his Twitter page: “I love dogs, and I don’t eat dogs. But laws do not prohibit other people’s freedom or rights to eat dogs. As a matter of fact, pigs, cows, sheep and all the plants we eat, are all our good friends. It’s repulsive to eat dogs, but it’s more repulsive to force others not to eat them.”
Another Twitterer agreed with his comment: “I actually don’t understand, why can people eat pigs and chickens so openly but it’s cruel to eat dogs?”
Eating dog meat has been a long tradition in China. Ancient Chinese medical books say dog meat keeps the body warm in winter and many Chinese people still believe that. Although dog meat is not seen at dinner tables as much as pork, beef or other kinds of white meat, some parts of China still favor the canine dish – especially in the northeast along the border with Korea and in the southern provinces of Guizhou and Guangdong, which are known for eating practically anything that moves.
Many people view less superior breeds of dogs as edible “meat dogs,” even while having pet dogs themselves. In vast areas of the Chinese countryside, free-roaming dogs are often snatched and slaughtered for food.
Dogs in China also face the chance of being beaten to death in small remote cities where limited public budgets makes local governments unable to provide rabies vaccination. As a result, when there is a rabies outbreak, locals often use what seems to be the simplest method to address the problem: kill all the dogs.
“When talking about animal rights laws, China is behind over 100 countries in the world. This is hard to believe,” said Grace Gabriel, Asia regional director of International Fund for Animal Welfare.
AP
In this photo taken on April 15, 2011 and released by Capital Animals Welfare Association, animal lovers use their cars to block a truck transporting dogs from Henan province to Jilin province as its passes a toll booth near Beijing, China.
Raising alert
Still, attitudes towards animals are changing and the Chinese public is becoming increasingly aware of animal welfare.
China doesn’t have laws against animal cruelty, but animals like pandas or tigers that are threatened by extinction are legally protected.
Animal protection organizations, despite some not having government permits, are being founded and people are more willing than they used to be to join them and discuss them in public.
Celebrities are getting involved in public service messages – for instance, NBA basketball player Yao Ming is featured in advertisements all over the country telling people to stop eating shark fins. And bear farms, which have been used to harvest bile from live bears and sell it as a valuable ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, have come under increasing scrutiny and do not get licenses from the government anymore.
“Just a few years ago we didn’t even have this concept of animal protection. Now we have such a wide range of attention and support. Overall, I’m not pessimistic about the future,” Gabriel told NBC News.
And Friday’s truck wasn’t the first one chased by animal lovers. Wang Qi from the China Small Animal Protection Association told NBC another van crammed with dogs was found and followed by volunteers just days before Friday’s rescue, but they lost track of it.
When asked about future plans to save dogs, Wang admitted there’s not too much more they can do.
“What we can only do is appeal for the attention from the government and the society, and hope everyone cares about it,” said Wang. “We have to help raise the alert for animal welfare. This is the best we can do.”
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One man's best friend is another culture's food animal. One culture's horned God is another culture's Quarter Pounder.
So what about cruelty? Our factory farming and industrialized cruelty exceeds anything the Chinese do.
I don't think your have much of an education on how the Chinese treat animals...or people for that matter.
Some of these animals had collars and tags...how many STRAY dogs have tags and collars on them running around. These were someones PET....which means they cared for and loved that animal just as any member of their family before it was kidnapped to feed others. This would be considered KIDNAPPING, or even criminal negligence on their part. Then again...I am sure the better looking the dog, the more he would have made in profit....meaning go for those who have been taken care of by a family to gain more profits.
To take an animal that has obvious human emotions (which 99% of animals have) one that you nurture and care for as you would a child to be stolen and sent on a truck with hundreds of others as dinner is truly an outrage.
As for the euthanasia comments....many shelters are now NO KILL shelters, which means they will transfer the animals throughout different Humane Societies until the animal is adopted....and eventually these animals are adopted. I myself have adopted several different animals from local humane societies.
In China, people (mostly government officials, or their friends and family) are free to take your house even if you have titles to the property. So a tag on a pet is no barrier to butchering and consumption. It may even be a selling point to get higher price - "Clean Dogs with Tag"...
yes, don't eat dogs. it's so much more fun to grocery store and buy a steak, chicken, and fish and see the look on their eyes when you come home within an hour -- 'dang he IS soooo good' is the look in their eyes.
but seriously, dogs are intelligent and compassionate animals that should not be eaten.
Historically, one should remember that China has seen many famines, the last in the 1960's where millions of people starved to death. If you are a 60+ Chinese, then you remember that. I'll bet 99% of the objectors on this blog would have no trouble eating a dog to avoid death by starvation. America has never had a true famine, so we have never been exposed to these experiences. The Chinese, particularly in the southern provinces, have had times where insects, reptiles, dogs, etc. had to be eaten to stay alive. My hunch is that they aren't that bad to eat, and once you get used to it, you do OK. Yes, I've been to China. There is some joke to the effect that they will eat anything with legs but a table, anything that flies but an airplane,..... and I forget the rest of the saying. The people that say that there is no difference between eating a cow and a dog are absolutely correct in my mind. We are culturally acclimated to cows, but not to dogs.
The difference is that most of those dogs were part of somone's family, just like a child. They weren't raised for th epurpose of becoming dinner for someone! Most pigs (except pot-belly pigs) are not kept as pets. Same for chickens and cows. There is a reason that dogs are called "man's best friend". I can possibly understand in the case of pending starvation, eating a dog or cat. But these days that is rarely the case. I don't care if I was starving to death, I would never eat my dog! I would die first!
Apparently the culturaly acceptance in China regarding eating dogs and cats, is changing. Are you all that are defending the eating of dogs going to also saythat it was culturally acceptable (in thattime and place) for the Nazis to commit mass exterminations of Jews, gays, and anyone else they didn't like? Are you going to defend the past cultural acceptability of slavery? There are times where you just have to draw the line!
Man-made famines are great for China. It gave the Party a good rationale to clamp down on the people, and dispose of any opposition to the party. "Those starved may start a riot" is a great reason to round up everybody, and make those opposing your to disappear. That's why CPC should be in power for ever. That's what stability and harmony means - keep the dissidents in jail.
China is simply barbaric. Shame on you! Plain sick!!!!!
Thanks for the awareness of this issue. However, The residents of China are not aware that their desire for ivory is making the elephant to go extinct. Just as this group is raising awareness about dogs, there has to be someone in China that will do the same against ivory trinkets, powdered rhino horn, or all the other animals slaughtered by illegal poaching. There needs to be education for school children against animal abuse and illegal wildlife trade.
While it is commendable that the dogs were saved from a horrific death, the fact still remains that China needs to implement stringent animal welfare standards for all animals and raise awareness of the rights and plights of animals. This awareness needs to include animals OUTSIDE of China too...the Chinese people do not seem to care that because of them animal populations throughout the world are being decimated. Their desire for ivory is taking elephants to the brink of extinction, so too is their desire for rhino horn taking that animal to the brink of extinction as well. The same can be said of other animals such as the tiger etc. It's fantastic that this group is raising awareness about dogs, but elephants, rhinos, tigers etc need a voice too. The Chinese people need to be educated as to the high cost of the ivory trinkets, powdered rhino horn, tiger parts etc to the fragile populations of these animals. Besides which, they are supporting the illegal businesses of poaching and smuggling.
Stringent animal welfare standards for all animals is the right move. Once arrested, the police can tell the violators that they will face severe punishment unless reasonable consideration is made available to the arresting officer. What do you think the policeman will get if the penalty is a 20 year jail term. Just think about the extra income each policeman can get just by rounding up people mistreating animals. I can see all the money rolling in, quickly...
....no wonder that General Tso's chicken I saw at the local "Super Panda Express" buffet last night was wearing a collar!
seriously, the Chinese would (and have) put industrial waste in baby food if it means they can increase their profits
...I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them under water
Regarding my earlier comment about the use of ivory and rhino horn in China. How is it that there is a whole industry in China of people carving and selling ivory, processing and selling the rhino horn and tiger parts, AND consumers buying the products when these animals are dangerously close to becoming extinct. A serious investigation should be undertaken and this industry exposed, for as long as there is an industry there will be the illegal poaching and smuggling.
Where is this industry operating ? Is there any one in that place who would do the investigating ? What will they do after they found the truth ?
Ivory is one thing. And at least the animal was killed outright. The bear gall industry is something else. Bears are kept in small cages, with steel tubes inserted through their bodies to their gall bladder to collect gall several times a day. The bears are in constant pain.
I do have one silly question.. how on earth did the activist force a large truck to a halt with a compact passenger car in light traffic? If the truck actually hit the car, presumably the car would be totalled? As much as I'm sympathetic (and presumably the police also?) to the desire of Chinese activists to save dogs from horrible deaths, this was basically a highway truck hijacking, as far as I can tell.
How about the commy leaders can they be put on the menu( no that would be like taken poison). They should get their own medicine feed them to the dogs
So you want to poison the dogs ? Brilliant.
Although we have progressed to a certain level of "civilization" we will never be truly civilized until all life is respected. Pigs are highly intelligent, all animals, including birds, fish, reptiles etc. are sentient creatures. Mammals of course are more intelligent but even the birds I feed in my backyard have learned they have nothing to fear from me or my dogs, it must have taken some thought process for them to learn that. There is NO REASON for humans to devour the flesh of once living, breathing creatures. A plant based diet has nourished me for all my 78 years and rewarded me with superior good health and an appearance at least 25 years younger than my actual age. The true indicator of our loss of Paradise is the fact that some humans eat the flesh of their fellow creatures.I don't hate meat eaters, I try to inform them and teach by example. When I am asked what my secret to looking so yuong is, I have no other answer than to say, "I am a Vegan".
The sick part of this is the dogs were ill, had viruses, 68 dead already...people were going to eat this tainted meat. That's the gross part...that the dog seller and the butcher will sell this sick, virus infected meat. Shark fin soup is insane as well...eat the whole freaking shark or none at all...they eat sick dogs but can't eat the shark meat? Thousands of sharks drown every year so people can eat a soup made from the fin? For a culture that seems so efficient...it seems sad to waste so much meat.
don't knock it 'til you try it.
Poopoo platter anyone? Now we know what saskaejwan beef really is.
People who don't understand why we can eat cattle and swine, and yet not eat dogs, also don't understand (or care to understand) the relationship man has had with his dog over many thousands of years. He's been our companion and friend since the beginning, not something we serve up for Sunday dinner.
Trying to convince some of these cretins not to eat dog is like trying to convince others not to do drugs; it's an action that, like screaming into the wind, is both useless and ineffective.