Chinese blogger rescues 1,137 dogs intended to be killed for food from back of truck

More than 1,100 dogs destined for a slaughterhouse were rescued this week by an animal-loving blogger in Chongqing, China. The 1,137 dogs that had been cramped into cages stacked on top of each other onto the back of a flatbed truck were intercepted with the help of a blogger, who goes by the surname Peng, as they were on their way to be made into food.

"Now we urgently need more professional volunteers to come and take care of the dogs as many people are going home as the Chinese New Year is approaching," Peng said. The dogs were found to be in poor health and deplorable conditions - with some of the unlucky ones already dead in their cages.



By Thursday, 16 dogs had died while another 30 were rushed to a veterinary hospital in Chongqing. One generous activist volunteered a 1,000 square-foot warehouse to keep the animals as organizers try to deal with the next steps in getting the poor pooches to safety. Peng estimated that about 20 percent of the dogs will likely be adopted by locals since some of them are desirable breeds like chow and husky.

However, many of the remaining dogs face unknown futures as adequate housing is hard to come by. "The association plans to rent another building to put other sick dogs under quarantine in the next few days to ensure most dogs can survive,"
Chen Mingcai, head of the Chongqing Small Animal Protection Association said.