Writing about animal emotions after enjoying the London pantomime, “The Jungle Book”, the other week it seemed appropriate to reflect on the thoughts of two very special people who have championed animal emotions for decades.
JILL'S BLOG
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Something told me in vet Leanne’s voice that it was going to be bad news. I’d returned to Hong Kong at the weekend for meetings this week and was dreading a call from the team as they went back to the dog rescue centre on Tuesday.
On this latest trip to Qimeng Rescue Centre I remembered to bring tissues. “Little Eddie” has had two reprieves now as her health goes up and down – and I’d convinced myself that I would be holding her frail little body for the last time. This is a photo of her that Rainbow Zhu, our Education Manager, took as she arrived on the truck:
Stories like this are food for the soul. These photos in the Hong Kong Chinese-language media almost need no words as our Dr Dog ambassadors proudly show the community how healing and beneficial companion animals are for us all.
This wasn’t the way it was meant to turn out – well not if you believe in fairy stories. The 149 rescued dogs would settle down in their new rescue centre, contented and safe, and would all live happily ever after.
Just a year ago, we had a very special guest on site - a Taiwanese rock star by the name of Xin. A vegetarian and animal lover, he must have fallen in love with the bears as he promised to compose a new song for them before he returned.
So many positive developments just now in relation to dogs, cats and bears, that it's hard to know where to start.
On the morning of New Year's Day, we arrived back at the rescue centre ready to start health checking, vaccinating and de-worming the dogs. We knew that many of them wouldn't let us even get near, but if we could just reach a few and try to reduce the risk of disease it would at least be a start.
The last thing we expected to be doing on New Year's Eve was following a truck full of caged dogs destined for the notoriously cruel meat markets of southern China. Little did I realise when writing about Rainbow and the team's dog demonstrations in Chengdu over Christmas that we would later be involved in the rescue of the very same species destined for the food tables of Guangzhou.
Here's a lovely story to end the year from our own Rainbow Zhu, who organised a fantastic event in Chengdu to promote dogs as our friends, not food. Happy New Year to you all!
Jill's Bio
Jill founded Animals Asia in 1998, after an encounter with a caged bear on a farm in China changed her life forever. She now heads a team of over 300 enthusiastic staff and divides her time between our bear rescue centres in China and Vietnam and our Hong Kong head office. She travels extensively to participate in conferences and speak at fundraising events.
Read more here.
