Weds 22nd June: Gershwin making progress

Gershwin's very swollen neck and mouth has reduced in size

I wanted to do some washing and grooming (of dogs) on my day off, but carrying Gershwin the previous afternoon had completely put my back out.  The tide was low when I arrived in the bay after picking him up from Acorn and that meant having to get off the boat at a neighbour's floating dock and then walking some way to get home.  Gershwin refused to leave the dock on his own four legs, so there was nothing for it but to pick him up and carry him to a point that he recognised.  I just about managed the morning walk today but had to spend the afternoon lying down, and suspect I might be hobbling around for a while.  The good news is that Gershwin has started to eat and that the swelling on his throat has reduced quite dramatically, although it will still take some time for the large wound to heal.  Typically for the dogs that are part of my regular  hiking group, Gershwin was all set to join us when we left the house and was quite upset at being made to stay behind.

Apollo and his new family

I forgot to mention that little miniature pinscher Apollo had been adopted and is doing very well with his big "brother and sister", and today it was the turn of Jack Russell Jerry.  He has been waiting a very long time for some reason, but finally he has a home of his own to enjoy.

Finally Jerry has a home

Donating to Christopher's Little Adoption Shop will directly help the dogs

After posting some more information about the Yulin dog-eating festival yesterday, I was asked to re-post the donation information for the Little Adoption Shop in Bejing, where long-term resident Chris Barden has six hundred dogs rescued from the trucks carrying dogs for slaughter.  As there are no charities in China all donations must be made to Christopher's personal account but I can vouch for the fact that the money will be used to help the dogs.  It's also important to point out that these dogs were not paid for and that no butcher made any money from them as they were taken directly from the trucks.  This what Chris himself says about the situation:

"Chinese rescue organizations are fighting dog meat industry nationwide, not just in Yulin, and it is critical that people don't buy these dogs (as a way to "rescue" them) from dog meat traders -- thus profiting the dog meat traders without penalizing them in anyway. They will still kill just as many dogs to meet their customer's needs, but happy to take an extra profit stream from "compassionate" purchasers from all over the world. Disturbingly, Buddhist "fangsheng" groups and foreign rescue organizations are contacting dog slaughterhouses ahead of the festival to arrange purchases of these dogs in bulk. This will severely undermine Chinese rescue organizations increasingly successful strategy to force the government to enforce existing food safety, health and transport laws. Hundreds of trucks, restaurants and slaughter operations have been stopped by legal means, without paying the dog thieves a penny, and penalizing them to boot. This process is now being undermined by the foreign obsession with Yulin and ironically now creating an international marketplace for compassionate buyers of dogs-to-rescue that will benefit the very same criminals that everyone is trying to stop."

The Pool Party and Barbeque at The Pulse in Repulse Bay takes place this Saturday, and is already sold out (so you won't find any information still up on our Hong Kong Dog Rescue Facebook page).  However if you really wanted to go and missed signing up in time you can email andrea.chung@hongkongdogrescue.com to see if there have been any last minute cancellations.  It looks as though it's going to be a sizzling event in more ways than one!