Urgent dog rescue appeal from Animals Asia‏

Rescued from meat traders, they need your help now!

I hope you had a great New Years’ Eve and are looking forward to the Year of the Ox!

For us, it was a bumpy start to the year – elation at being involved in the first major rescue of “meat dogs” from a trader in China, but also sadness at seeing the state of the dogs and the knowledge that millions of others are still trapped in this brutal industry.

It all started on New Year’s Eve when the Qiming Rescue Centre, a dog shelter in Chengdu, asked for our help. The authorities in nearby Pengzhou had just confiscated 149 dogs from an unlicensed trading station (after a tip-off from Qiming staff) and the dogs were on their way to the shelter.

	Our first sight of the dogs was shocking.

A small team, including one of our vets and a vet nurse, quickly grabbed medical supplies and headed for the shelter. We arrived just as the truck carrying the dogs pulled in. I couldn’t believe what we were witnessing! It was horrible in every sense of the word – the stench (so familiar from our visits to live animal markets), the blood-curdling cries coming from the cages as the terrified dogs bit into each and, as always, the terrible feeling we all get when we look into the haunting, sad eyes of these beautiful animals.

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. Some of the dogs were shaking with anxiety, while others were rigid with fear. Many were suffering terribly and showing symptoms of parvovirus, distemper and kennel cough. Most were skeletal and their coats filthy from being excreted and urinated on by the top layer of dogs.

	Our volunteer vet nurse Helena tends to the dogs.

Animals Asia is health-checking the dogs, treating their wounds, vaccinating them and, sadly, euthanising those that are just too sick to save or so aggressive that we could not rule out rabies or other diseases; these dogs are also a serious risk to other dogs and handlers. The process is ongoing, but we hope many of the dogs will recover and find good homes. However, these are the lucky ones – this year alone, millions of other dogs (and cats) will be slaughtered in the most brutal manner in hellish meat markets in China.

	Many of the dogs were chronically ill and weak.

They will be crammed together into tiny cages, loaded onto trucks and driven day and night for four or five days with no food or water (if they are lucky, they might be hosed down, just to keep them alive). Once at the markets in southern China, they will be bludgeoned across the face, stabbed and bled out, or slowly, torturously beaten to death in the misguided belief that their meat will taste better if they are panic-stricken at the point of death. The same fate awaits millions of cats – some of them are even boiled alive.

What is so encouraging about this rescue is that it was a local animal-welfare centre that alerted the authorities about the unlicensed trader and, for the first time, the authorities actually confiscated the dogs! This is a wonderful example of Chinese people standing up and saying “no” to the cruel dog-eating trade – and it underpins our education efforts to stop demand and bring this industry to an end.

Many of the dogs were wearing collars and a number of them were pure-bred; these were possibly stolen pets; others had been collected as strays from the streets, bred in dingy cages on dog farms or raised in rural houses purposefully for meat.

At the moment, Qiming Rescue Centre has only cramped room to house these new dogs – at least temporarily – as we revamp and upgrade the facility and help them recover from their terrible trauma while they await adoption.

	Animals Asia’s Christie comforts some of the survivors.

We have much work to do, as the bitterly cold winter months close in on us, including more weatherproofing, extending the roof to cover many more dog runs, concreting the enclosures and runs and making dry, wooden-box beds. With the added expense of food and medical care, this is going to be a costly process.

All the money raised in this appeal will go directly to the care of the dogs at the Qiming shelter. Any remaining when our work there is finished, will go to our ongoing campaigns to end dog-and-cat eating.

Already, dogs that ran away whenever we walked into the enclosures are now slowly approaching us with cautious tail wags and trusting eyes. Some will stand nervously as we gently stroke their fur – but when we stop they will turn towards us shyly asking for more. Somehow I think they know they're the lucky ones – but there is still a long way to go.

Right now, these poor dogs need your help! Please send a donation, however small, to help us save them – and maybe turn some into animal-therapy “ambassador” dogs.


Warm wishes,





Jill Robinson MBE
Founder and CEO
Animals Asia Foundation

PS: This year is going to be particularly hard for us with the global economic crisis. So please, even if you can afford only a small amount, your donation will be greatly appreciated. Money goes a long way in China, and I guarantee that none of it will be wasted.

For more information, visit Jill's Blog: www.animalsasia.org/blog
To donate now, please go to our website: www.animalsasia.org

URGENT ACTION NEEDED FOR CATS IN CHINA

PLEASE TAKE ACTION!

Cats are skinned and boiled while still alive in Guandong, a south of China province. For full story, please read this latest news, and take action for the defenseless which are suffering unspeakable pain and agony.

Please write to the Guandong authorities, asking them to stop this horrific practice.

Your message will be more effective if you fax it or send it by snail mail in addition to emailing it. Regardless, please send them a message of disapproval. NOTE: Since this information may bring emotions to a high level, it is very important to keep it to polite messages or efforts to help those most unfortunate beings maybe in vain. Feel free to use the letter below, edit it or write your own. The important thing is to make it sincere and polite on behalf of the defenseless.


OPEN LETTER TO THE AUTHORITIES OF THE GUANDONG PROVINCE IN CHINA

Guangdong Foreign Affairs Office
Tel: (8620) 81218888
Fax: (8620) 81218569
Email: webmaster@gdfao.gov.cn

Dear Sir or Madam,

Newspapers worldwide are reporting about the extreme torture of cats that are skinned and then boiled alive by butchers in Guandong. Thousands of cats are sold to the Guangdong restaurants, and most of these cats come from other provinces where cat nabbers have become infamous all over China, terrorizing cat owners who fear that their cats may be stolen to be sent to Guandong restaurants. The shocking side of this story that's making human beings all over the world shiver with indignation is that cats are skinned and dismembered alive, and still alive when thrown into boiling water to finally finish a most hellish suffering with their last breath.

It is with profound distress that I am writing to you regarding this most Inhumane treatment of cats and ask you wholeheartedly that you put a stop to it immediately. The West is horrified by so much vileness, and this will certainly not be a postcard that China would want for the world to see. It is because of these practices of a minority that the important and rich Chinese culture and history have become so stained and repudiated by most countries which have adhered to humane laws to protect the most defenseless members of our planet: the animals. It will not be difficult for China to adjust to this new era since most Chinese people abhor these extreme cruelties. The minority in your society who delight themselves on this type of cruel bloodshed are a few and they will only destroy China's respectability around the world. Surely, not all Cantonese are proud of the smell of blood tainting their culture and history.

Quoting General Secretary Hu Jintao on December 18, 2008 commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the reform: "the spiritual poverty is not socialism," can be translated also for non-humans as these practices are certainly a great poverty of spirit and one that will bring shame to the Chinese civilization. It is now a good oportunity to follow on his Excellency Hu Jintao's footsteps to a rich and spiritual socialism.

Respected Guangdong Provincial party committee, the provincial government, Guangzhou Municipal party committee, the municipal government leads: These acts have driven people around the world beyond their limits of forbearance. There is nothing that should justify such horror, let alone something as selfish as the culture of food based on the suffering of the innocent and the defenseless.

I appeal to your conscience and the compassion that you surely have in your hearts, to put an end to so much suffering inflicted upon the most defenseless members of your society: the animals. Please make it illegal for butchers to inflict so much pain and agony on the voiceless and defenselss animals. Please investigate these atrocities, and forbid any food and beverage that is based on cruelty, and capture and destroy the suppliers and sales of live animal companions for food, immediately. Modern laws and regulations must be instituted immediately to avoid this type of traffic and the extreme suffering involved with it. No nation should have to be embarrassed of their own country because of a minority that can only bring shame and disgrace upon itself. It would be to the great advantage of China to put an end to this horrific treatment of animals to show the world that it is also compassionate and civilized, and has the ability to be an effective part of the third Millennium.


Sincerely,

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