A Place of Our Own
Part 1
Beijing, China
“Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.”― Alexander Pope
You may know that WOA works with existing partner operators in China to shelter animals from homelessness and the dog meat trade. What you may not know is that animal rescues across China are, by necessity, underground and hidden from the public arena.
This is due to many reasons, the main reason is that these shelters are not part of the ‘official government’ system, in other words, they are not recognized as organizations. Establishing a nonprofit in China is extraordinarily hard and expensive. It can take years to get approval, not to mention enormous effort and money.
This lack of ability to act in the public sphere has forced the Chinese Rescuers and their supporters into a virtual space for communications. There are vast social media chat groups that support each other through the internet alone. Our Founder, Yi Ping is in regular communications with our partner shelters, as well as, other independent animal rescuers across China.
That was how Yi Ping discovered the dire circumstances at Lijie’s shelter.
Forced to move several times, Lijie and her dogs ended up in a junkyard situation. What’s worse, the police had answered a neighbor’s complaint and took 15 dogs including handicapped dogs and puppies and told Lijie in merely three days they would return and seize the rest of the dogs to take to the government pound.
In China, this is a death sentence. Dogs who are impounded in government shelters are never seen again. They are kept in poor conditions with lack of food and die from disease or starvation.
Yi Ping had to make a quick decision to save these dogs.
Within hours, she mobilized a ground team of WOA Partners and Volunteers and with their help, secured a location to harbor them. During the move, it was discovered that several had illnesses and injury and had to be admitted to the hospital. One dog had a fracture in its leg.
The rest of the dogs, some 28, were taken to our new shelter about 4 hours outside of Beijing. We are subleasing the space from an established boarding facility. We hired someone to make homemade food for the dogs.
We purchased beds, blankets, heaters, and commercial kitchen food preparation appliances. We had them immunized, wormed, scheduled for spaying and neutering, and arranged for a vet to come to the kennel once a week to observe any problems and give them their second and third rounds of shots.
They were all safely settled in a matter of days, given a nice meal and a good rest.
That’s when the call came in for another emergency.
Yes, there are several parts to this story which we will be imparted over the next few weeks. It’s been a white knuckle express to say the least. We are overjoyed at the result and can’t wait to tell you about it.
If you can help us with our new plans for direct care of these dogs saved from the dog meat trade, please donate. We need your help to feed them and outfit their kennels this winter. Please join us in the fight against the animal crisis in China.