Labrador’s heartbreaking plea after owner sells it to slaughter in Henan, China

CHINA: A 60-kilogram Labrador reportedly found itself being sold to a dog slaughterhouse in Henan, China, by its owner due to concerns about its weight.

Aware of its impending fate, the Labrador understood it would soon be confined to a cage within the vehicle of the dog meat seller, leading to an inescapable end.

Overwhelmed by fear, the dog knelt down and pleaded with its owner, hoping to avoid abandonment. However, both the dog killer and the irresponsible dog owner remained indifferent to its distress.

Thankfully, a compassionate individual witnessed the cruel act and intervened by paying the individual who made a living from slaughtering dogs, ultimately rescuing the Labrador from its grim destiny.

The scene was captured and published by a Weibo user, “Rural Ah Wei”, depicted the Labrador being seized by a dog killer and forcibly dragged into a cage, destined for transport to the slaughterhouse.

As per the initial post, the callous former owner attempted to rationalize the sale by referencing Labrador’s advanced age and the purported lack of space at home.

Despite lacking merit, these justifications influenced the former owner’s decision to sell the Labrador to a dog meat vendor, even though the former owner had provided the dog with proper care and ensured its well-being throughout their companionship.

Overwhelming condemnation

The video has garnered 278,000 views on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Weibo users overwhelmingly condemned the barbaric decision of the dog’s first owner.

A comment expressed his sadness in the comment section: “The dog could be stolen from someone else. Its healthy size means that its former owner takes good care of it.”

Meanwhile, another user argued, “Not necessarily. I have a friend who said that when she was a child, her grandparents sold a wolfhound they had raised for seven to eight years, citing the reason that the dog had become old.”

“I’ve always struggled to understand how someone could bear to sell a dog they had cared for 7 or 8 years.”

“Dog meat is not edible meat! The National Ministry of Agriculture has stipulated that dog meat is not considered consumable meat! Those who eat dog meat are all barbaric people; people worldwide despise those who consume dog meat.”

“The dog knows everything, and finally left with the new owner decisively, completely ignoring the old owner.”

“This dog is lucky because it has fought hard for its life, but there are other dogs on the scene, they are not as lucky. It makes me sad to think about it.”

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Three years ago, the Chinese government signaled a decisive halt to the consumption of dogs, as the Ministry of Agriculture unveiled a draft policy on 9 April 2020, that would effectively prohibit the use of canine meat.

Citing the “progress of human civilisation” as well as growing public concern over animal welfare and prevention of disease transmission from animals to humans, China’s Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs singled out canines as forbidden in a draft “white list” of animals allowed to be raised for meat.

The ministry called dogs a “special companion animal” and one not internationally recognised as livestock.

The city of Shenzhen in 2020 approved the first ever mainland China ban on consumption of dog and cat meat, a move that has given hope to animal welfare groups worldwide that other parts of the country could soon follow suit. The new draft policy has provided even more.

While not officially a ban on the consumption of dog meat, the draft policy from the agriculture ministry could be a “game changer moment for animal welfare in China”, Wendy Higgins of Humane Society International (HSI) told the Guardian.

HSI estimates that between 10 and 20 million dogs are killed in China for their meat annually, while Animals Asia puts the figure for cats at around 4 million per year.

Most of these are stolen animals and not raised in captive breeding facilities, Higgins said.

“Not only does it cause enormous animal suffering, but it is also almost entirely fuelled by crime and, perhaps most significantly right now, poses an undeniable human health threat with the risk of diseases such as rabies and cholera,” Higgins said.