Best Bark About China: Becoming the first dog in recorded history to walk (and widdle) on the Great Woofing Wall of China.

Worst Yelp About China: Having to watch my back at every turn at the risk of being stolen, skinned, eaten or beaten alive…

I wasn’t planning to be a great Woof In China, but then I wasn’t planning for the Japanese authorities to decline my entry up Mt Fuji. With Japan in the Junk box, and a long hounded haul from Thailand to Hollywoof, China was added as a great divide. And how, you may ask, did I manage to get through China’s quarantine without getting swallowed? Well, I’m still not sure; the rules are vague and rather random, but there is something called ‘Home Quarantine’ (otherwise known as Pay-as-you-GO-NO Quarantine) If you fly into Beijing – getting through the formalities takes a few seconds but it does cost a paw and a hind leg! Did I mention the $1500 price tag? Did I mention that ‘I’m worth it!’ Woof!
With my shopping spree exchanged for diplomatic immunity, there was only one thing left to do before arrival: Double up on my insurance policy – this fur is worth a lot you know- and there are stiff rules, and ruff penalties here in China and its easy to get swallowed up - excuse the pun!. For example, I’m a handsome 55 cm high. Now only dogs below 35cm in height are allowed into downtown Beijing and those dogs who’s owners break the law ‘disappear’ and are disposed of in an ‘undisclosed’ manner. If that’s not spooky enough, China is one of the few countries that strictly enforce dog licensing (there are 100 officials in Shanghai that look after dog issues in the city alone!) especially when they want their city to look ‘clean’ for international events like the Olympics last year or the upcoming 2010 Expo. As a tourist, I didn’t exactly have a license- not that that’s going to get me out of trouble - I really had to be careful! Worst part of all, an annual license fee for a dog is so expensive (1,000 Yuan ($147) to 2,000 Yuan annually) that on average only about a quarter of pet owners register their pets; the rest don’t; and it’s the dog that will ultimately pays the ultimate penalty. According to one volunteer at the organization we visited, the dogs are clasped off the street and literally taken to 'concentration camps’ where most will die with a week through disease and fighting. You also have to carry your dog’s license papers on you at all times and failure to produce the paper when approached by a policeman will lead to automatic and mostly permanent confiscation – in other words – death!

The hardest bone to swallow is the fact that here in China, there is no legislation of animal welfare and protection, except for The Law on Wild Animal Conservation which was only promulgated in 1988 to protect cuddly little panda bears – a well calculated choice implemented when the Chinese Government realized how many cuddly panda toys they could sell to tourists at Beijing International airport if they could make the Panda an icon! Those making the laws in China have the attitude, ‘…pet dogs bring pleasure to only a few people while cause harm and trouble to the majority.’
It’s very common that the pet owners discard their pets for a variety of reasons, and if a policeman doesn’t like you, he can take your dog away for no legitimate reason- and it happens. In the week before I arrived, a dog that had supposedly bitten a resident in Beijing was caught and beaten to death – in a store, just like that. Yup, the Chinese can bite into dogs at mealtimes, but one random dog takes a miniature bite into a human, and its death by barbaric beating. Life is so unfair! If a dog is found to have rabies, it is pretty common to take out every dog in the entire region- a rabies ‘reduction’ was happening when I was sin China, and back In May, the dog culling in Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province led to the slaughter of 40,000 dogs after eight people died of rabies!

I was supposed to stay in downtown Beijing, but I wasn’t taking any chances and stayed on the distant outskirts below the Great Wall at an amazing residence called the ‘Red Capital Ranch’. More on that later…
Our first stop took twice as long to drive there as it did the time I spent with them. The drive from Beijing to Shanghai is 18 hours, and while the Chinese roads must be some of the best in the world, the drivers sure even the score. I didn’t fly because in China, dogs on domestic flights have to take ANOTHER rabies injection and as you know, I don’t do the needle thing. I spent 2 days with SCAA (Second Chance Animal Aid) – an organization that was set up in 2005 by ex pat Carol Wolfson and is now in the highly capable paws of foreign and Chinese volunteers. At the helm is Lee-Anne Armstrong and I stayed with Lee-Anne in downtown Shanghai. I wasn’t allowed on the streets in the event that the dog-licensing patrols were out. We spent the first day eating Papa John’s pizza (THANK you James Kong) at a get together at the beautiful Lakefront Club (Thank YOU Kevin Kolman). It was a very cool outing and every living attendee left safely that afternoon with plenty of raffle prizes bursting from the motor bonnets. The next day I joined SCAA for one of their monthly adoption days at O’Malley’s’ Pub in downtown. SCAA is run through a select group of foster homes and it’s a joint effort. SCAA encourages those that call up after seeing a hurt/stray dog to be apart of the solution and to assist with providing care and support for the dog/cat until a permanent home can be found. (No passing the buck!) The group typically adopts out 4-5 cats/dogs each month and the events are well supported. During our time in Shanghai, I was also able to visit the bird and flower market – not nearly as sad as some of the infamous markets in Guangzhou, but sad all the same. Puppies are available from cages that confine their every movement. Most have not water and when you ask the shop owners to get some, they look at you like you’re a crazy foreign freak. Problems in these animals include skin or ear infections which in many cases are covered up by antibiotics while the animal is in the store but become apparent at home. Many also suffer from behavioral problems from being weaned too early or being kept in cramped cages. The spectators of the show who ultimately buy the dogs are oblivious to the responsibility a dog requires and it’s almost a guarantee that these dogs will be dumped on the street after the joy of a cute puppy wears off. And the license? What license!!? Anytime anyone buys a puppy from around the world, you support these places – no matter where they are located. You support an industry that deliberately reproduces dogs for the sole purpose of financial gain. Please, please, if you only ever do one thing to make this mutt yappy, PLEASE never allow anyone you know to buy a dog – or accept a hand me down free of charge from a breeder who couldn’t get money for the last few in the litter.

Back in Beijing, I visited BHAEEC- founded by Mme Zhang Luping, is a dedicated animal protectionist, (who has been whole-heartedly involved in the animal protection cause in China since 1990) the undisclosed premises is a breath of fresh Chinese air. Set on a secluded stretch of land that must be the size of a few soccer fields with a bit of overgrown grass in between, the ‘center’ houses almost 500 dogs – mostly Pekingese crosses and quite a scene if you can imagine almost 50 white balls of fluff walking free range around the premises at any one given time. As with both shelters we visited in Beijing, a few of the dogs are rescued remedies from the meat trade. (Yes, just in case you didn’t know, in China they eat dogs!) The center is run by a group of Chinese employees as well as a number of expat volunteers and while the adoption rates are low (1-2/month), the animals do seem to have it pretty good inside these gates. I visited another shelter that is run by Duan Xio Mei. Set in a corn field that would make a perfect movie set for another baseball movie, most of these dogs in here were rescued from hospitals where sick dogs are regularly abandoned (I’m still trying to understand what makes humans think its actually OK to dump and run?) A tall, intriguing Chinese woman set up the show and has loved dogs ever since she was a child. She wants to promote the legislation for animal protection and begged me to bring in more international media to make a bark about the way dogs are treated and eaten in China. She mentioned that the Chinese Government does pay attention to international media and that this would really help the hounds here.
Dogs are now very much a status symbol in China and while the small dogs used to be the most popular breeds, hunkies are now the in ‘thing’. Saint Bernards are almost as popular and believe it or not, they are prized dogs when it comes to the meat industry. Ironically, many Chinese are afraid of dogs having been warned since childhood that dogs will bite and harm you if you get too close. Sadly, their fear hasn’t stopped them from approaching them when they’re on a dinner table. There is so much I want to bark about on this subject, but you’ll have to wait for my book to really get my scoop- but briefly in a bone-shell, before arriving into China, everyone I knew kind of joked about me going to China where they ’eeeeet dogs!!!!’ It was my intention to recue a dog from the meat trade and to fly it to the States for a happy ending. The plan was to drive to an undisclosed ‘underground’ warehouse on the outskirts of Shanghai where 80% of all the meat dogs for Shanghai are killed (more like tortured to death) and then frozen for sale. They arrive in over crowded crates between 4 and 7 in the morning– much too early for the ‘sophisticated Shanghai residents’ to view the conditions of these dogs - many dead from the long journey- many with collars still on showing that they were stolen pets (this is very common!)- but this scene really happens; it happens every single day in China and it pales in numbers when one compares the situation to the Philippines and Korea. Here in Beijing and Shanghai, you wont find dog meat on the menus as easily as in Guangzhou or further North as you approach the Korean border – but it still happens and estimates are that in Guangzhou alone in winter, 10 000 dogs are eaten a day!
So, why didn’t I go and see what was happening? For starters, my life would be in danger. The sight of a blonde, blue-eyed ‘dog’ at 5am would signal international interest and well, that would be grounds for a beating or a skinning. You see, they know what they are doing is barbaric – otherwise why would they care having me stare? But the truth of the matter is this. I wouldn’t handle the horror. My dear friends, I am just a dog. I have no rights here in China and I would be helpless in being able to confront a pack of canine killers. I don’t think that there is anything worse than being in a situation where you see an injustice being served to a helpless being and knowing that there is nothing you can do about it in that moment. In such hopelessness, I simply fear that I would not handle seeing what would transpire before my paws. I also thought about rescuing a dog from the market, but in essence that’s supporting the very industry I despise, so in the end, all I can do is reflect on the matter and expand on it in my upcoming book and add some lines that will really make you think about what’s going on here. If you consume animals, you hardly have a case against the Chinese; nor the Japanese with regards with whaling; nor do the Chinese have one against the West for eating cows. I still can hardly believe it when some will comment about China’s barbaric practices, when a moment later, a fork with a piece of dead pig goes down the pipelines. How does that logic work? I sadly passed many trucks with pigs on the freeway between Shanghai and Beijing; the truck driver stopping to poke the masses as foam gushed through their thirsty mouths. The transportation of these pigs is no more or less destructive and cruel as what the dog meat industry does. Both need a major compassion overhaul, and a new assessment as to what we are culturally OK with swallowing – Come on, human animals are smart – surely cultural conditioning shouldn’t dictate where we serve compassion, and where we exclude it from our menu of consideration. Eat dogs, pigs, goats, cows, dolphins and whales. Or don’t. Logically woofing, there is no case for the middle of the ruff! Paws up for compassion in all animal farming, but until then folks, please support humane methods of transport and slaughter no matter how much you are led to believe that it’s all done in a pretty perfect way. Better yet, become a veggie. If we all do there wont be any more transportation. Full stop!

By the woof, a draft for animal welfare rights is finally on the table and currently in review at government level in China, one hopes that it makes it through the system before I get home!

Sorry for all the typing, but I needed to woof that out. On a brighter note, there are a few MASSIVE Thank YOU’s to bark about. Going to China was a unique and potentially dangerous proposition and I couldn’t have done it without plenty of help! Firstly, to Kevin for driving me half way around China and back, and for trying to improve your English because I couldn’t speak Mandarin, you were terrific. To Kiki for helping to arrange all Oscar’s import and expert permits, you really know your stuff, thank you. To Lee-Anne and Carol of SCAA. Without ALL your advice, support and organization, where would I be? Thank you SO much for all the wonderful work you do in such a challenging environment and thank you for taking all the time and effort to make sure that my passage through China was productive and most of all, safe! A real big Thank You to Rola, Nats and Laurence who provided me a full week accommodation on the outskirts of Beijing – staying in Beijing with a height of 43.4 cm was too risky. Now there are places to stay, and then there are THE places to stay. Without question, staying at The Red Capital ranch was a highlight of my World Tour. Perched just below the Great wall, and surrounded by the mystic Chinese mountains that reflects a history kindly remembered within your Tibetan style premises, thank you so much for supporting my project. You’re concerted efforts to sustain indigenous communities and cultures in building self sustaining projects such as this is something that I encourage everyone to support. Lastly, to all the policemen protecting their bricks in THE Wall, who allowed me to catch the cableway and to become the first dog in history to walk (and widdle) on the Great Wall, thank you! Actually, I know you only said yes because you were taken by surprise – I mean who on EARTH would want to bring their pavement pooch for a day on the wall? So many ‘yes’s’ on this Tour have been a direct result of the element of surprise - this was the one I really wanted, and I got it. China- your Wall has gone to the dogs – its time to toast us Canines!!!! California and safety control here Oscar comes…