Hi everyone
I wanted to share a personal message with you. I have been back at the base in China this month, and it’s full of mixed emotions. Deep sadness knowing some of our rescues have passed away without knowing loving homes and great joy to meet some old friends, including some of my Yulin rescues, I thought would not make it.
I wanted to update you on Mary, our pitbull. Not only is she alive and safe, but she is also. She is thriving.
To remind you of her story:
When I was in Yulin with Mr Zhao and the Judge, we went to some horrific dog farms hidden in the hills behind the city—lawless places with dirt-track roads and no signage. On one of them, we met Mary, chained by her neck in a rusty cage and forced to give birth over and over. Her newborn was beside her in the cage, and the farmer who fed them on rotting rice told us in a few months he would be slaughtered and sold as dried meat ‘ bacon’ strips.
It was the eve of the festival, and he was reluctant to let us take even a few of the males. He told us to come back in two days, and he would let us take the unsold dogs. But, he said, he would never release Mary, his only breeder.
These words pained my heart, which was already broken by the suffering I had seen at Yulin. It was sweltering heat, and there was not even a bowl of water in sight.
We discussed Mary between us, and Mr Zhao told me that as a pitbull, we faced imprisonment if they caught us transporting her across county lines. I didn’t want to make life more complicated, but I couldn’t leave without her.
So I did something I believe we all should do: I prayed. I prayed for mercy from our eternal mother Mary.
As we went back that dawn, the farmer had prepared four males, and he agreed to let us take her pup. We were miserable. This didn’t feel like a victory. But then, as we were loading the dogs in our blacked-out van, he shouted down to us. We couldn’t hear him at first, so Mr Zhao climbed back up the muddy path. “ I hope she has a better life”, he was shouting, and before we knew it, he handed her over.
It all went so fast, but for a split second, I felt change and redemption were possible.
Painfully thin and full of parasites, she squashed into the cage with the others, and we drove the long 22-hour journey back to Hebei, where they and our other rescues were hospitalised. I visited her every morning and night to clean her wounds and feed her. The hospital staff were terrified of her.
It was at that moment that I decided to name her Mary. She is our mother miracle.
Slowly, she began to recover, and after I left, she was put into our base in the brand-new kennels we had built for this year’s rescues.
I couldn’t believe it as I came back into the sub-zero temperature to find she was the first face I saw. Her tail was running at a hundred miles an hour. I opened her kennel and let her run free. She is joyful, playful, fat and gorgeous. My heart felt overrun with gratitude, and I am convinced that, whatever your faith and beliefs, the power of prayer works.
And as for her pup, little Maurice. Well, you can see from the photos below how big this ‘ little fella’ has become.
I will update you more in our own special Pawmas newsletters over the next few days, and please follow us on social media to see our videos.
I would like to ask if you can buy one of our Christmas calendars to help fund our work and donate to our heating appeal if you can afford to. We only have 5 days’ worth of fuel left.
Thank you, everyone.
Julia and all the team @notodogmeat in China
Press board photos and video on request
0300 302 0326
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