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Dog ownership was previously described as a bourgeois hobby and was prohibited under the leadership of Chairman Mao, founder of Communist China. =
This photo taken on Nov. 29, 2020 shows Wen Junhong kissing a dog at his shared home with rescued animals in Chongqing, southwest China. Image: AFP
CHONGQING – Twenty years ago, Wen Junhong saved an abandoned dog from the streets of Chongqing in southwest China. Now he shares his home with more than 1,300 of them, and they keep coming back.
After taking in that first dog, a Pekingese he called Wenjing (“gentle and quiet” in Chinese), Wen found that he couldn’t stop.
She says she was driven by concerns about what homeless people face on the streets of China, from accidents to being caught for the dog meat trade.
“It is important to take care of these dogs,” he said. “We must all respect life, and the Earth is not only for humans but for all animals.”
Dog ownership was previously described as a bourgeois hobby and was prohibited under the leadership of Chairman Mao, founder of Communist China.
Opinions on pets have changed dramatically since then, and ownership has exploded, but the country still does not have a national animal welfare law and there are tens of millions of stray dogs and cats, according to the AnimalsAsia charity.
Stray strays are rarely sterilized, compounding the problem and putting further pressure on overburdened and underfunded animal rescue centers.
In addition to abandoned pets and homeless people regularly left in her front yard, Wen says she receives calls “every day to help more dogs.”
And it’s not just dogs that this 68-year-old man likes.
He also lives with a hundred cats, four horses, and a lot of rabbits and birds.
“Some people say I’m a psychopath,” she admits.
CLEANING
Their day begins at 4 am with the unenviable task of cleaning up 20-30 barrels of dog excrement overnight and cooking more than 500 kg (1,100 pounds) of rice, meat and vegetables for the animals.
Debris burns in the backyard, sending a continuous plume of smoke into the sky.
A handful of dogs run freely through the building, while a pit bull terrier tied to the back door growls and barks at strangers.
Each room in the two-story house is filled with cages, stacked side by side.
Surrounded by fences and closed gates, its hillside location is the latest in a series of houses after complaints from neighbors forced her and her charges to keep moving.
Wen finances the operation with the proceeds from the sale of his apartment, loans of up to 60,000 yuan ($ 9,100), and his pension and lifetime savings from a previous career as an environmental technician.
She also receives donations after drawing attention to social media, where she has been nicknamed “Chongqing Auntie Wen.”
Wen hopes the attention will lead to adoptions, but the newcomers far outnumber those who are being rehoused.
And it has suffered online abuse, after images of the animals’ living conditions were published.
“Living in such a small cage is no better than being a stray dog,” wrote one critic on social media.
‘EVEN IF THEY BITE ME’
Six dogs had arrived on the day of the AFP visit, including four small puppies.
Large dogs are kept outside and small dogs are caged inside.
“If all the dogs are released, they will fight,” Wen said.
Some try to gnaw through the bars, while others bark relentlessly and fight each other.
A pooch yelled at anyone who passed until Wen covered his cage with a coat.
He has six employees, who sleep in a room full of bags of dog food.
One, Yang Yiqun, shows arms and hands covered in scars and scratches.
“I like dogs even if they bite me,” says the stoic local from Sichuan who has worked with Wen for five years.
“She is under too much pressure to handle it alone.”
Even with her love for animals and a team to help her, Wen admits that relocating stray dogs is a struggle.
“It’s really very difficult,” he laments.
“There are more and more dogs and each of them has less space.”
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