This American activist has just rescued 1000 dogs who were destined for consumption at a Chinese dog meat festival.
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The controversial annual festival started this week in southern China and lasts for ten days. 10,000 dogs will be beaten to death and then eaten by festival-goers.
Though hundreds of thousands of people across the world have expressed their outrage at the inhumane tradition on social media, very few people are actually doing anything about it.
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Marc Ching, founder of theAnimal Hope & Wellness Foundation (an American animal rights NGO), is one of the few people who have taken concrete steps to prevent the massacre of thousands of dogs at this event.He made the journey to the home of thefestival in Yulin, working relentlessly to halt salesof dogs.According to the organisation's Facebook page,the activist and his team managed to free 1000 dogs from six different slaughterhouses on June 21. Afterwards they published this video of the massive rescue effort:
This is live. This is now: The Animal Hope and Wellness Foundation, and The Tree of Life - we just rescued over 1000 dogs from Yulin.A thousand breaths that would die here in the dark. A thousand lives that would bleed like blood left there upon ground.These dogs, they are brothers. They are sisters. They are fathers and mothers. They are children. They deserve a chance.All life deserves chance.The Compassion Project. If it is about one thing, it is about that as human beings, we were meant to love. We were meant to breathe life. We were meant to be - better then who we are.Speak out. Hold hands. Love the Earth. And rescue. Because in the end, even we need rescuing.(Thank you Tree Of Life for teaming with us to make this possible. Thank you XiaoFang and our Nanning team for your hard and enduring work.Thank you to our Animal Hope and Wellness Foundation volunteers. Real people that left their families - to stand here and sacrifice for the cause.Unreal.)#TheCompassionProject #animalhopeandwellness #SpeakTheTruthPosted by The Animal Hope & Wellness Foundation on Tuesday, June 21, 2016
But Marc Ching's efforts don't stop there. It is in fact his seventh mission against the dog meat trade in the region in just one year.
Just like many of the other NGOs in Asia, he has managed to shut down slaughterhouses in numerous countries, regularly buying dogs who are going to be eaten and sending them to the US for adoption.
Unfortunately, the incredible work of Marc Ching and other organisations like the Humane Society International has not been enough to completely wipe out the dog meat trade.
Between 10 and 20 million dogs are killed every year in China for the sole purpose of human consumption. And contrary to popular belief, these dogs are totally normal and healthy, just like the ones we adopt in Europe.
What's worse is that these dogs are stolen from their owners.
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Quite apart from the tragic fate that awaits them, these dogs live out a nightmare existence: the poor creatures spend their whole lives in tiny iron cages with barely enough to eat and drink.
Although it seems that public opinion is starting to change in China, with the younger generations turning their backs on the dog meat trade, there is still a long way to go before the practice is well and truly eradicated.
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