Rescued: Two mothers and their newborn, Yulin 2026
Dear Friends
The night before the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, panic sets in among all genuine rescuers on the ground. Security is tighter than ever, and every move is monitored. The anxiety and sick-to-the-stomach knowledge that dogs who have not been rescued will perish. The fear, hopelessness, and praying for a miracle.
A day earlier, we visited the dog farms up in the mountains, where it is impossible to drive. You have to trek through mud. On arrival, you know what awaits you. Dogs are chained in wire cages by their neck. Females are forced to breed repeatedly. Males, including puppies, are immediately slaughtered. It’s so hard to get a mother dog. They will not let them go, no matter what deal you dream of making. Mr Zhao is softly spoken and does his best to make small talk, feigning interest in the operation. Julia spies a mother who gave birth days earlier, with 3 pups. She is pitiful and weak, and the only food in front of her is a bowl of rotting rice. We later learn she had given birth to eight dogs, but 5 had already been slaughtered.
The farmer won’t budge, and we are forced to leave. A black nose brushes against Julia , and her tail wags. We wonder why she is out of the cages. He wants us to leave and becomes more insistent, wielding his huge butcher's knife, throwing his weight around. It looks like this year, he will be butchering dogs in place, as it will be hard for dealers to access the farm by truck. The thought that this innocent soul will have her belly will be sliced open with her tiny pups inside makes it hard for us not to break down, but we duly march out and continue our investigation to the neighbouring villages with their mom and pop slaughterhouses and stinking meat of all varieties on sale in kiosks in the humid day.
We can’t get the mothers out of our minds. They remind Julia of Mary, our pit bull, whom we rescued last year. We know miracles won’t happen twice. We are in the real world of dark, sinister, demonic depravity.
The next day, Mr Zhao uses his burner phone to turn his luck around. He poses as a buyer, saying his wife, who is desperate for the puppies, wants the females at all costs. Of course, he will take the males, but the mothers have to be included. The farmer seems more willing as the weather worsens, but he won’t let us go back there directly. We are told to drive towards Nanning, about two hours away, where his man will meet us in a truck. It’s torrentially raining by then, and we can barely see on the highway.
And then we get a call from a friend and fellow activist describing slaughter scenes we know well, asking us if we can take any of the dogs he wants to rescue. We can’t. With only a car at our disposal and no base in Yulin, and with the dogs we rescued the days before, we just do not have the resources or help. He understands. We all do, but that does not make the decision any easier.
We have no idea how we can take care of the Mum and her newborns, or when her cage mate will give birth. As we turn the corner into the meeting spot, a dead end, we see a group of transit vans for dogs pulling in and out. Julia cranes her neck as the doors open to see if they have kept their word. Sure enough, the two mothers are dragged out with heavy chains around their necks. Even the puppies are chained, leaving open wounds on their backs.
It’s nearly midnight, and we scramble on the ground to cut those chains off and give our rescues food and water. We can’t get to the hospital with everyone. Fortunately ,a friend from Guangzhou agrees to let us to camp out in his friend’s shop for a few hours. And then, just as we were about to leave, it happened. Momma gave birth. Silently and without fuss. We look at the clock, it’s the 21st. The Festival will start in a few more hours. We can’t believe it and shed tears of joy and despair. Had she given birth on the farm, she would have never been freed.
It’s a victory, but for us, a hollow one, as our hearts are imprinted with those we could not save.
The next few days will be touch-and-go to keep the newborn alive, and we now have 7 in total. And then we must get everyone back to our base, thousands of miles away.
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