65-Year-Old-Chinese Woman Travels Over 1,500 Miles to SAVE 100 Dogs From Being Eaten (23 Photos)

Every year, 10,000 dogs are eaten at the traditional Chinese Yulin festival | Image credits: Reuters

This is not the first time we’ve posted about Chinese female elders trying to do their part by saving dogs from being eaten.

A woman in China recently was reported to have paid over $1,000 to save 100 dogs from being killed and eaten during a dog-meat festival in the southern city of Yulin. A social-media campaign has even come together – #StopYulin2015, to bring light to the situation.

Yang Xiaoyun, 65, was captured browsing through a market where dogs were kept in cages, before paying to rescue the canines.

The festival occurs annually during the summer solstice, in Yulin, a city in southern China and involves the slaughter and consumption of thousands upon thousands of dogs but not everyone supports this barbaric practice.

This is Yang Xiaoyun, a 65-year-old retired teacher who wants to stop dog slaughter in China

The retired teacher runs an animal shelter in Tianjin called the ‘Common House’. She traveled over 2,400 km (1,500 miles) and spent more than 7,000 yuan ($1,100 or €990) to save 100 dogs from certain death.

Many have accused the organizers of unnecessary cruelty when cooking the dogs | Image credits: AP/Humane Society International

Ms Yang’s first rescue started back in 1995, when she witnessed a kitten being thrown into a river just because the owner couldn’t sell the kitten for the price he wanted.  So what does she do? Yang ties a rope around herself and goes into the river to rescue the drowning cat. She was then pulled ashore by her son. She has not stopped rescuing and sheltering stray animals since.

Yang decided to travel 1,500 miles to Yulin and spent 7,000 yuan ($1,100) to rescue 100 dogs from being slaughtered

After her house quickly filled up with animals she had to move the shelter to a garage in her community but it didn’t take long for the rescued animals to grow beyond the garage’s capacity and in 1990, Ms Yang rented a small bungalow with a courtyard in the Xiqing Da’nanhe area, and “Common Home” was found.

Here she sits next to a cage with poor dogs that she just bought from dog-meat dealers.

According to faclc:

In the following decade, “Common Home” has had to move ten time due to various reasons.  It has also had to relocated to different areas throughout the city.  To fund “Common Home”, Ms Yang sold two of her properties in the city.  Her son and only child disagreed with how much she was sacrificing to rescue the animals and moved away. Some years later, however, he had a change of heart.  Now, he and his wife are both strong supporters of the shelter and help however they can.

She runs a shelter called ‘Common Home,’ which is home to more than 1,000 dogs

She not only feeds and shelter these poor dogs but provide medical attention to them herself! All which has been made possible through the volunteers and donations she receives – and still needs. That’s a lot of dogs for any one person to take care of! (See at the end how you can donate.)

Many of the dogs require medical attention, which she provides

Her shelter depends on volunteers and donations to operate

All she can afford to make is corn bread for the dogs which she feeds them twice a day.

She tries to give them treats every weekend.

Attitudes towards dog and cat consumption in China are changing, but some of these traditions have deep roots | Image credits: AP/Humane Society International

 Bless her for her compassion and care.

Image credits: Animals Asia

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Donations can be made to Xiaoyun, (according to this blog), here:

Direct Bank Wire Transfer to Ms. Yang’s Bank

Name: Commercial Bank of China (中国工商银行）

Bank Account City: Tianjin (开户城市－天津）

Bank Account No.: 0302845001009282956

Account Name: Ai Yun YANG （杨爱云）

Xiaoyun Yang’s Cell Phone: 13164073263

Source(s): boredpanda | faclc | time