(CN) Restoring the bonds that tie people to dogs

[Guest guest]

Sunday Morning Post

http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a0a0a0/?\

vgnextoid=474c6f9a57784210VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD & ss=China & s=News

Ivan Zhai

Oct 25, 2009

 

Maomao, 27, organiser of a Guangzhou volunteer organisation concerned with

dog welfare, explains the strategies it uses to encourage more people to

take care of abandoned dogs.

Maomao spoke to Ivan Zhai:

 

You are a law student. Why did you choose to take care of abandoned dogs?

 

It was fate. It was March 1, 2004, my first year of university, and two

friends and I saw about 20 abandoned dogs in an abandoned stud farm near my

apartment building in the Panyu district of Guangzhou. Most of the big dogs

were in dirty cages and they had just leftover dry rice to eat. It was very

cold, and you could see how miserable the dogs were.

I also saw a small, young dog in the barn. Its back legs were injured and it

could not walk properly. I felt I should do something but could not find any

staff. When I told the small dog I would come back in a few days I saw tears

in its eyes, and I was deeply impressed by its cleverness. I felt I must

protect it.

I bought the small dog for 200 yuan (HK$230). With three of my friends'

support, we bought all the dogs from their owner, a Taiwanese businessman

who had planned to use the dogs as part of the entertainment for visitors to

his farm. That was the beginning of our group, the Family of the Pet. Life

sometimes is full of unexpected things.

 

What is the main purpose of your group?

 

We are a stopover point for abandoned dogs. Our goal is to find them new

families to love them.

As a small group, we made some rules to ensure our operation is run well.

For example, we will never have more than 20 dogs in our 300-square-metre

dog house, because we want to give them the best treatment. We treat sick

dogs and send out information to families applying to adopt dogs. In the

past six years, 90 per cent of our dogs have gone to caring families.

 

What about the other thousands of abandoned dogs in the city? Don't you care

about them?

 

Of course we care about them. But no matter how many dogs you have, there

will still be plenty of others you cannot look after. So we believe the best

way to teach people to love dogs is not to get bigger, but to keep telling

people the principles of loving dogs and caring for them.

We say on our website that we do not do fund-raising, and suggest people

support us by donating goods such as rice, but not money. We say that if you

want to give us 100 yuan, use it to help an abandoned dog on the street.

That is how we try to involve more people in the cause.

 

How many people are involved with the group?

 

In the beginning we had four main partners, but two of them left and now I'm

the only full-time worker. The other partner is an employee of a foreign

company.

All the rest are volunteers, of whom we have more than 2,000. They schedule

and manage the list themselves. A couple of years ago we had only a few

dozen volunteers, and I could not leave Guangzhou for even a week. Now I can

go on holiday for a whole month.

 

What are your plans?

 

I have learned a lot from dogs and from my work in the past six years, and

hope to continue spreading the word, especially with policymakers, on how to

treat dogs. We also hope to share with more dog owners the idea of spaying

and neutering.

We find that the main reason there are so many abandoned dogs is that many

people are given puppies by their friends and don't know how to care for

them. People who do not love dogs will naturally give them away if they

become sick or have other problems.

As a professional group that specialises in the welfare of dogs, we have a

wide network of dog owners who understand their needs and, most importantly,

know what is good for the dogs.

We hope to provide more useful suggestions to the government to make

dog-keeping rules more reasonable and fair to owners and pets alike.