The story of this rescue was published in the Daily Mail today, but the following is the rescuers’ report, translated by our contact Joy Gao:
At 10 pm on January the 15th of 2012, a couple on their way home to Chongqing, in the south east of China, found a truck on the Chengdu-Chongqing highway, filled with over one thousand caged dogs. Thanks to the couple who dialled 110, the police were able to apprehend the drivers of the truck at the next toll station. 1132 dogs were squeezed into miniscule cages being transported thousands of miles to the Guangdong Province in the south, to be slaughtered for food.
At 11 pm, messages were spreading over the internet through micro blogs such as Chinese Twitter, causing Mr. Chen Ming Cai, the founder of the Chongqing Small Animal Protection Association (CQSAPA) and other volunteers to arrive at the scene. The situation was handled well by the police officers, who helped volunteers give water to the caged dogs and removed the cages from the truck later.
After negotiations of more than 20 hours, at 6 pm on the 16th of January, the dogs were released to the Chong Qing Small Animal Protection Association (CQSAPA). Officers from several local governments with the help of skilled animal rights attorneys, Ms. Cai Chuen Hong?and Mr. An Xiang, who communicated by phone from Beijing, and were able to ensure all dogs were rescued and cared for without having to pay a cent to the dog nappers.
The dog nappers were found to have a Certificate of Quarantine for the truck of dogs, but it was later found that not only was the certificate for only 780 dogs, but it was also fake. The poor dogs were crammed into the truck on eight levels, over 100 dogs crowded into one level each. Some dogs were found dead and a female dog was found to have given birth to four puppies during the negotiations.
Many thanks go out to Dr. Li, (http://weibo.com/vetnet ), a veterinarian from Chongqing, who has been working for over three days and nights to treat injured dogs and take care of the mother and her new born puppies. Many of the dogs were found wearing clothes because of the cold winter, and many also wearing collars, indicating that many dogs had been stolen from their rightful owners.
Thanks also go to the Bureau of Agriculture of the Central Government which has announced Six New Regulations for Veterinarians over the whole of the country from January 1st 2012, which seeks to forbid Vets from issuing certificates of animal quarantines. Hopefully this will stop any more people from transporting dogs to restaurants to be eaten. Many animal advocates have already been contacting the Bureau of Agriculture regarding the new regulations, calling for them to detain and prosecute the people who had kidnapped the dogs and forged a fake certificate, as well as make the regulations actual laws which will prohibit people from issuing such certificates.
This is a big step for animal rights in China in 2012, and hopefully things will continue to progress. It is wonderful to see that everyone’s hard work towards animal rights has not gone to waste.
Previous rescues took place on April 15th 2011, when 500 dogs were rescued in Beijing and volunteers were forced to pay 115,000 RMB (USD 18,000) in negotiations to have the dogs released, and 80,000 RMB (US$12,000) was also paid to get 900 dogs released in Zigong on October 14th 2011. This time, the volunteers were able to get over 1000 dogs released to them without having to pay anything. Dog nappers should be sued for subjecting poor animals to such cruelty.
It took a lot of time and hard work to remove all the dogs from their cages in the trucks to be transported to larger cages donated by volunteers. All the dogs received a medical checkup before being transported in three trucks.
CQSAPA was established in 2005 by Mr. Chen Ming Cai, and since then there have been thousands of dogs rescued, while the shelter itself has around 800 dogs being cared for by him and his wife and volunteers. The maintenance of the shelter mostly comes from donations from loving people. We encourage people to adopt dogs from shelters like these instead of buying from a store, as this will help decrease overpopulation of dogs in China.
Many thanks to all the volunteers who stayed up overnight and worked diligently to have the dogs rescued, who are now all safe and cared for.
We must all see this event as the start to a better life for animals of China, and continue to rise to the challenge of saving them. We welcome the growing appreciation and awareness of the care of animals increasing all over China.
Jan 18th 2012.
Chong Qing Small Animal Protection Association: http://www.weibo.com/1744821663/y0Y5ECAwC
To make it easier for anyone who would like to help this group, Rosa Close of the Anti-Fur Society in the US, will collect donations. Please visit: