Pups in Need! Calling All Animal Lovers

Mr. Xu Ke Jian is the busy owner of a small pet grooming service in Hubei. As a hobby, he would feed and care for the strays that gathered outside of his shop—until one day it wasn’t a hobby anymore. Fast forward to 2022 and he is now the sole full-time manager of an animal shelter in Shunyi called 爱宠家园(ài chǒng jiā yuán) literally “Loving Pets Home”.

Advertisement

It is home to over 500 animals, including several hundred dogs and cats, and even pigs, sheep, and chickens! They were doing alright living happily albeit simply off of donations and the help of volunteers like Lana Shab, the foreign volunteer organizer, and Wang JiaLi, the local volunteer organizer. Until they were told their building was set to be demolished and they would need to move urgently.

As many of you may remember, this is not the first time a shelter has suddenly needed to close down due to city construction in recent years. But with a little luck, Mr. Xu and his team of volunteers found a small abandoned farm in Miyun that can accommodate all of these animals.

But the costs and logistics of moving so many furry friends humanely are high. Rent and much-needed repairs to make the farm habitable come to a whopping RMB 50,000, and of course finding good homes for as many animals as possible is difficult even under normal circumstances.

I asked Shab what the most immediate needs were and she told me the expat community can help out by doing the following:

For questions and more information about adopting or volunteering, add international volunteer organizer Lana Shab’s WeChat through the QR code below.