Activists pay to rescue 800 dogs

After two days of negotiations, two animal protection organizations paid about 83,000 yuan (S$16,500) to a dog trader in Southwest China's Sichuan province to rescue nearly 800 dogs that were due to be delivered to restaurants in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Qiao Wei, 26, who works for Sichuan Qiming Companion Animal Protection Center (SCAPC), a Chengdu-based animal welfare organization, said the money was paid for humanitarian reasons and not used to buy the dogs.

The SCAPC and the Love of Home Animal Rescue Center (LHARC) in Chengdu would not have paid dog trader Tang Daguo a cent if they had not taken into consideration his economic plight.

Some of the dogs were stolen from their owners as two pet owners found their dogs in the cages. Many of the dogs also failed to meet the quarantine standards, which would have posed health risks for consumers.

Tang Daguo has now promised to give up dog trading. All the dogs will be taken away by dog protectionists without any compensation if he does not mend his ways according to a written agreement signed by Tang, the two animal protection organizations and the local district government.

An Xiang, a lawyer in Beijing, said he did not applaud the volunteers' behavior of buying the dogs from the dog trader as it encouraged wrongdoing.

In a previous case, volunteers stopped a truck in April carrying 520 dogs on the Beijing-Harbin Highway and finally paid 100,000 yuan to save them from being butchered and sold as meat after a 15-hour standoff. The case also aroused much controversy among the public.

ORIGINAL SOURCE

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