An encaged performance artist set up shop in front of a Guizhou Province dog butcher shop yesterday to protest the consumption of dogs. Despite the 3 degrees celsius outside temperature, the 40-year-old canine advocate, Pian Shankong, was clad in nothing but a pair of underwear. Throngs of self-proclaimed dog volunteers joined him in the demonstration, chanting "do not eat dog meat." more ›

The rescue of more than 500 dogs on their way to slaughter last week continues to cause controversy as experts estimate that caring for the many injured and diseased animals could exceed 10RMB million in the coming five years. That's on top of the 115,000RMB an animal protection organization paid to have the dogs freed last week. Leaving out medical costs for illness and injury afflicting almost every animal, vaccines alone cost 150RMB per head, not to mention spaying and neutering range from 250-500RMB. Thousands gathered online and in person to support the rescue last week, and many saw it as a step forward for animals rights in China. The important question now is whether there will be the necessary follow through, or will these animals simply end up dying at the pound instead of at the butcher? more ›

Hey look! Somebody finally got freed in China last week. On Friday, April 15, a truckload of 520 dogs was stopped and the animals were rescued by the coming together of activists online, with an outpouring of support from thousands! When word of the truck spread on Sina Weibo, hundreds arrived at the scene with mineral water and food, jamming traffic and refusing to let the truck leave.15 hours later, a pet company and an environmental organization gathered the necessary funds (115,000RMB!!) to buy the dogs. more ›

Yesterday a Shanghai woman uploaded an appalling video of a man skinning what looks to be a golden retriever in broad daylight on a sidewalk in Hongkou. The video immediately sparked outrage online and offline, and has been reposted thousands of times on Sina. The news video below includes only clips of the original, which was over five minutes long, and thankfully has blurred out the animal. [Warning: graphic images] more ›

I guess in a land where people still go hungry, it sometimes seems a little luxurious to care about what happens to the animals - but it's hard not to have a reaction when hearing about the constant and seemingly systematic cruelty to dogs in this country. Recently, an illegal dog slaughterhouse was uncovered in Jilin Province, where about 300 dogs a day were slaughtered and then sold for their meat. more ›

This new finding on the domestication of canines, published in the New York Times, explains so much. Stockholm researchers have found that wolves may have first been tamed for their meat. And the place that first decided our four-legged friends were probably tasty? Southern China. How did scientists come across this factoid? Usually the region with the greatest amount of genetic diversity is the point of origin, since a species loses diversity as it spreads. That place is Southern China. Also, dog bones with cut marks have been found at archaeological sites in the area. Like with any scientific theory, there are a lot of caveats - "genomic archaeology" is an incredibly new field, many think diversity is just as high in African village dogs and there's the possibility that dogs were domesticated at a different site and then spread to everywhere but China. But isn't it kind of funny to think that, even 10,000 years ago, China was chomping on stir-fried Fido? more ›