I have been a volunteer with Golden Bond Rescue (GBR) of Oregon, a golden retriever rescue group for the past ten years. To date we have rescued, provided medical care and found forever homes for 2600 golden’s and golden mixes. The demand to adopt golden retrievers from GBR has left us with an issue that we are more than happy to have: more adopters than available dogs!
At our most recent board meeting we discussed a new and particularly heinous crime happening in Beijing, China, family dogs are being snatched off the street to be sold to the meat trade.
These dogs are rounded up by groups of 3-5 people forcing them into a van, sometimes when they are being walked by their owners. Their methods of capture include loop leashing, nets, blow darts, crossbows, drugging and poison.
There are as many as 400 dogs being stolen from the Beijing area every 1-2 weeks. Even a “seeing eye” dog was stolen out of someone’s yard, there is no limit to the evil of these groups of people taking dogs to sell for profit.
Pens containing as many as 500 dogs in squalid, suffocating conditions are taken to slaughterhouses and this unregulated dog meat is sold into the food chain for human consumption often putting innocent consumers at risk of infection and disease.
Several animal rescue groups in China will raid the holding pens and rescue as many dogs as they can at a time. The dogs are then taken to facilities where they will live, sometimes for years, with minimal care. It is all the rescue groups can manage with no budget or very limited financial support.
GBR is working with a Beijing rescue (Together forAnimals in China) to bring these rescued golden retrievers out of China and to Oregon where GBR will provide them with medical care so they can eventually be adopted. Many of these dogs are in very poor condition, it may take months before they are healthy enough to be adopted, during which time they will be in foster homes receiving the love and nurturing they so desperately need.
The cost to fly each dog out of Beijing to Seattle is approximately $2000. The even greater issue for GBR, and where our urgent plea comes in is that the dogs need to be escorted from Beijing. We desperately need volunteers that fly from Beijing to Seattle, perhaps for business, that can escort dogs for us. The process would require meeting someone from the rescue at the Beijing airport to receive the export paperwork. Then once the flight arrives transferring the paperwork to the USDA desk at the Seattle airport, a GBR rescue volunteer would be present to collect the dogs in their crates for the remainder of the trip to Oregon.
If you or someone you know is able to help us please contact GBR at www.goldenbondrescue.com If you are unable to transport, please consider monetarily sponsoring the transport one golden retriever. For these dogs we are their last hope.
Thank you for taking the time to read this,
Michele Zawadzki, DVM
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