Translated and forwarded by our contact Joy Gao:
At 4am in the morning of the 5th of March, the Chongqing Small Animal Protection Association (CSAPA) and other volunteers finally came to an agreement with the local Chongqing Government about the 900 dogs being transported down south for slaughter. This happened after long negotiations, which had started on March 1st., and all the dogs have now been released into the care of Chongqing Small Animal Protection.The negotiations took place at the second rescue scene, where volunteers chased down the truck and stopped them at a toll booth, after the truck had been first released by the Quarantine Head Officer. The quarantine certificate the dognappers had was fake, one that was made only after the truck was stopped the first time on 1st of March. It was also discovered that there was a black sheep among the dogs that were captured, which also somehow ‘passed’ the dog quarantine.
On the 4th of March, the two quarantine officials who issued the fake certificate to the dognappers had their jobs terminated after investigations were made by the Quarantine Bureau of Wushen County.
Many thanks go to the two gentlemen who personally flew all the way from Shenzhen to Chongqing to help the other volunteers try to rescue the dogs. When they arrived in the early morning on the 4th of March, there were only 10 volunteers at the second rescue scene, in the freezing cold and with a lack of rescue equipment. There was one foreign volunteer who came all the way from Shanghai to collect signatures and finger stamps for a petition calling for animal protection laws to be established. There were also many volunteers from other provinces who drove for more than 10 hours to the scene to help. The CSAPA also hired busses for other volunteers to travel to the scene, which was around 3 hours away from Chongqing. Veterinarians from the city of Chengdu also came to help the dogs. Everyone’s arrival was very much appreciated and was great encouragement for the other local volunteers.
We are now calling for more volunteers right now to come to the rescue scene at Anwen School in the Qijiang subcity of Chongqing to help transport the dogs and clean up the area, as we do not want to affect the general public. More than ten owners have been reunited with their stolen dogs, and we hope more families will be reunited with their dogs soon. There are many breeds of dogs that have been stolen, including Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds and Huskies.
NOT NEGOTIATING WITH EVIL DOGNAPPERS IS OUR BOTTOM LINE! WITH YOUR CONTINUED HELP AND LOVING SUPPORT, WE HAVE THE HOPE AND DETERMINATION TO DEFEND THIS BOTTOM LINE AND NEVER BACK DOWN TO THE DOGNAPPERS!
No matter the conditions, we will continue to be with our furry friends through the darkest times of their lives. We thank you all for your love and support; it is because of all of you that we were able to rescue more than 900 suffering dogs.
There is still a long way to go after the dogs have been rescued. Injured dogs need to be treated and they all still need to be found loving homes. At the moment, the CSAPA is looking to rent a place for the dogs to stay temporarily while they are being treated.
We appreciate all of you, whether you were a determined volunteer who stayed at the rescue scene for over three days straight, or an avid poster on Weibo (Chinese Twitter) spreading the news of the 900 dogs all over the world.
We are calling for Animal Protection Laws to be made in China, which will allow the whole chain of dog and cat eating to be stopped as soon as possible. This rescue is a great example of what must be done, and although it lasted for more than three days, the volunteers have succeeded in saving the dogs. We pray that the dogs that have passed away will lead to millions more dogs and cats being saved in the future.
Again we thank you all so much! On this frozen night, we feel warm.
Chongqing Small Animal Protection Association. 5th Mar 2013
(Slightly edited by Marian Hussenbux.)
The full story of this rescue, with pictures, can be read at this link. The page will be updated, as soon as more news is available.
http://careforchineseanimals.net/2013/03/03/3-02-chongqing-dog-rescue/
QCA sent our loving good wishes to Joy, to be passed on to the wonderful rescuers in China. It is quite amazing how dedicated and efficient they are.
Past rescues of cats and dogs in China can be found on our site at:
https://quaker-animals.co.uk/2012/another-rescue-of-dogs-in-china/
https://quaker-animals.co.uk/2012/wonderful-rescue-of-dogs-in-china/
https://quaker-animals.co.uk/2009/joy-gao-on-shanghai-cats/
Please note, this is not an exhaustive list of rescues, just a sample of how active the Chinese groups are.
This is wonderful news. Thank you, thank you and blessings to all those who so bravely helped in this rescue.