Rescuing The Rescuers
Anhui Province, China
They simply disappeared.
Shiaoyu stood horrified as a sudden, violent river formed pushing its way straight through the new shelter location, crumbling walls with the force of the water, destroying food, and threatening the lives of the 800 animals in his care.
His favorite dog lost their footing, got caught in the turbulent path, and quickly carried away by the force of the water right in front of his eyes. Shiaoyu scrambled for a way to save him. Alone, he watched as the sudden river took him.
This is the most severe flooding China has seen for 80 years.
It has affected over 30 provinces in China. Among them, Anhui Province was hit the hardest. The animal shelters and rescuers in this region are on the verge of disappearing.
Shiaoyu’s shelter is located in the foothills of the mountains where 700 rescued dogs and 100 cats are housed. They lost walls and dogs were in danger of running away or being carried off by the swift flood water.
What’s unimaginable is that there was only one person on site caring for the animals-- Shiaoyu, the 30 something shelter founder. The only other kennel worker was too afraid to stay.
The response was international.
When WOA Foundation first learned about the incident on July 7th, we quickly assembled and dispatched a volunteer team to help to move dogs and cats to safety on higher ground and keep them from escaping.
On the same day and within 12 hours, WOA raised $15,000 along with our local partners and rushed the funds to Shiaoyu for rebuilding the wall and expanding the drainage system.
Shiaoyu’s shelter was just one of the three impacted by the flood that we helped in July.
Due to the scarcity of funds, no help from the government, no humane society, and only meager donations from the local community, there’s simply not enough resources available.
Shelters in China are hard tested in normal times, much less in a year with a coronavirus outbreak and flood, they were hit with double- whammy. Flooding is expected to continue in this region for the next couple of months.
Miracles happen.
Shiaoyu’s favorite dog showed up at daybreak the next morning, tired and a little worse for wear, but otherwise alright. He ran straight towards an extremely overjoyed Shiaoyu!
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