“The Lone Fighter”

Tags

accusations, Alice Susan Harding, Charity Fundraising, China blog, Conspiracy, fundraisers, Julia de Cadenet, mrs yang, No To Dog Meat, World Protection for Dogs and Cats in the Meat Trade, Yang Xiao Yun (杨晓芸)

As 2015 draws to a close The UK registered charity #1154524 ‘WORLD PROTECTION FOR DOGS AND CATS IN THE MEAT TRADE’ (WPDCMT) AKA ‘No To Dog Meat’ (NTDM) are still tenaciously holding on to the restricted income fund naming the Chinese ‘dog and cat protector’ Mrs Yang (Yang Xiaoyun) as beneficiary.

The charity management are publicising a recent SCTV.com video report calling it a “Shocking new report providing irrefutable evidence that what NoToDogMeat have said about Mrs Yang all along is true!” It seems they are counting on few westerners being able to understand a word of the report and are putting their own spin on it. The video report is fair and unbiased and reveals little new information other than a dispute between Mrs Yang and an uninvited visitor. We believe that the following translations will offer a clearer picture of why Mrs Yang is caught on camera attacking a fellow countrywoman named Duan. You will read that the woman named Duan was threatening to turn Mrs Yang’s dogs out onto the streets, and, that this same woman gave Mrs Yang only 19000 yuan out of the 100,000 yuan donated for Mrs Yang by people from Yunnan prior to this years Yulin dog meat festival.

Full translation of Mrs Yang’s weibo post dated Dec 2. ~~ When I, Yang XiaoYun was buying dogs at the Yulin festival in 2015, a person named Duan who runs the Kunming Animal Protection Farm contacted me. She said people from Yunnan had raised donations amounting to CNY 100,000 (editor’s note: approx. £10,000) for me as funds to buy dogs. She then joined me and entered into the market, and I started talking to the dog dealers. While I was busy, Duan left me without giving me any money. Later on, as I ran out of all money and didn’t even have any money for transportation, I called Duan but no one answered the phone, I therefore gave up calling. Later in the night, Duan called me and asked if I had money, I told her the truth that I didn’t even have money for transportation. She told me to wait and said she would send money over. That night, she withdrew 19000 (editor’s note: approx. £1,900) from the cash machine and gave it to me, I wrote her a receipt right after taking her money. The fee to transport a truck of dogs to Tianjin that evening was 15000, the remaining was huge help to me including my own transportation. Since then, there has been no contact with her, and no further news about the remaining 81000 (editor’s note: approx. £8100) of the donation.
Yesterday, Duan stated online that she was going to break into my base and release all my dogs. She came today, and I reported to police for my safety.
I would like to take this opportunity to reach the kind hearted people who donated for me during the Yulin festival this year. In order to recap the total donation, those who donated please email me your name, telephone number, donation amount, and any information about the people who took your donation at my email address fengkuan1221@163.com.
Thank you so much to those kind hearted people who donated CNY100,000 for me, but I have only received CNY19000! I hope to receive emails from those who donated, to check the whereabouts of the donations! (original on this link)

The screen shot above is a Wechat message from Duan. She runs a dog shelter in Kunming. She aggressively expresses her intention to break into Mrs Yang’s sanctuary and send the dogs onto the streets :
“Great I will lead to go to Yang’s base, break the door and release the dogs, when dogs are gone, I will leave.”

The video report The Dog Woman by SCTV.com has been altered by the charity to include a title ‘Mrs Yang Xiaoyun Exposed’ that does not appear on the original and is posted with that alteration by the charity on YouTube

We provide here a translation in detail of the video news report: The Dog Woman

Good evening, thank you for watching Golden 30 Minutes. In Tianjin, an elderly woman has become famous across the country because of her love for dogs. In the Yulin dog meat festival in the recent two years, she spent huge amount of money purchasing a large number of dogs that were waiting to be butchered. And she transported them all the way to Tianjin. Yet a woman with such huge love for the dogs is now being accused of animal abuse. What really happened?

An elderly woman at her 60s has spent all her money and possessions to rescue stray dogs.

Yang: Come on… stand up. Let mama take a look…… baby…

A picture of her down on her kneels at the Yulin dog meat festival has made her famous. But what follows is accusation and controversy.

Woman in black jacket: She doesn’t take good care of the dogs. She cheats money.

Does she really love dogs or use dogs to cheat money? What is the underlying truth?

Yang: I snap your face…..

We now deliver you… The DOG WOMAN

Beichen, Tianjin

Yang (reading a poem): Your short lives, suffering. Humans are cruel, difficult for you to live. Facing god, my heart is boiled. All you want is to survive, a mouthful of rice, loyal and to be trusted. Scene of your horrible death, the great god saw. XiaoYun incapable, the Buddha decides. Sacrifice my life, spare their suffering. Leave the suffering, back to human life.

The 66-yr-old retired worker Yang XiaoYun is considered as the most well-known animal activist in China. She began rescuing stray cats and dogs in 1995 and founded the Tianjin Common Home Animal Protection Shelter. As of now, her life of rescuing animals has entered into the 20th year. But this year has not been a good year for her. While always treating dogs as family, Yang is now being criticized and accused of abusing dogs.

Dec 1, 2015 morning – Yang’s shelter in Beichen, Tianjin

Early in the morning, two women showed up at the door of Yang XiaoYun’s shelter uninvited.

Duan: I came to see the 3000 dogs, you have 4 shelters, I came to see your 4 shelters.

Yang: I don’t allow you to see, who sent you?

Duan: I sent me.

Yang: I don’t need to show you. Go go go…. I have 300 dogs, I don’t have 3000 dogs.

Duan: You told me you had 3000 dogs…

Yang: Bullshit, I’ll beat you out….do you believe…

The two women are dog lovers from Yunnan and Beijing. Duan, the leading person of the two who used to have a close relationship with Yang XiaoYun also runs a dog shelter in Kunming. Today she came to Yang’s shelter from Kunming, but Yang did not allow this old friend to enter into her shelter.

Yang (holding stick): Leave!

Dog lover(s): Let’s talk… let’s talk..let’s talk…

Duan: I’m not going…I’m not going…..

Others: Auntie Yang… Auntie Yang…. It’s ok it’s ok… fine…fine…fine…

Why did Yang become so mad with the appearance of Duan? Duan said she came with a pure purpose, that is to see Yang’s dogs, but was shocked.

Duan: Her dogs are so poor…really poor. They’re better starved to death or freeze to death on the street than in here. This place can be said as dogs’ hell.

Through the crack of the doors, Duan saw many dogs with skin problems in the shelter, some losing big amount of hair.

Yang: You bastard… what did I do wrong? You can’t get away with this… you bastard…..

At the door of the shelter, Yang kept yelling at Duan and her companions until they left. Yang and Duan used to be friends and they both are well-known in the animal protection circle, what makes them such enemies today? They said it is because of the rumors after the Yulin dog meat festival.

June 19, 2014 – street in Yulin, Guangxi

Yang: I tell you now…the purpose of our promotion is not for you to mock at us, to laugh at us. We are all Chinese….

Yulin citizen (shouts): Chinese people eat dog meat…

Yang: The world now promotes no dog meat eating…..

Yulin citizen: You love lives, you love dogs? There are mountain kids without education, why don’t you go to them…. and you talk about people eating dogs!!

On June 21 every year, there is a festival especially organized by people in Yulin, Guangxi – the Yulin Summer Laichee Dog Meat Festival. On that day, thirty thousand dogs are killed for cooking. To dog lovers like Yang XiaoYun, that is absolutely cruel slaughtering. Prior to the dog meat festival in 2014, Yang went to Yulin for the first time hoping to persuade people in Yulin not to eat dog meat. She spent money to buy dogs waiting to be killed.

Yang: I save as many dogs as I can. I am a volunteer and I have been doing animal rescue for 20 years. I am now in Tianjin and have adopted 3200 dogs and 200 cats.

Reporter: How much money are you going to spend on buying dogs this time?

Yang: Less than CNY100,000

Reporter: What is the source of your funds?

Yang: Kind hearts of the society, and international donation. The money I have now is by selling my flats in Tianjin. I have two flats in Tianjin, in Nankai district and in Heping district… the best flats in Tianjin… I sold them for 4 million.

Yang and a few dog lovers together purchased a large number of dogs in the dog trade market. The dog dealers heard about them and rushed over. In order to mark up the prices, the dog dealers even torture the dogs to attract the dog lovers to buy the dogs.

Dog dealer (holding the dog up): Pay or not pay?

Citizen: Another (dog lover) coming…..

Dog dealer: I don’t care… I want money….

Dog lover: How much do you want?

Dog dealer: 500

Dog lover: Please don’t be like this…..

Dog dealer: 400…400…….400…pay now

Finally, this dog lover bought the dog for CNY 350

Yang: For a few times I almost fainted. I spend money to buy so many dogs, but not only do these people don’t understand, they even rally and make fun of the dogs to poke us, to rip us off.

In the 2014 Yulin festival, Yang spent over a hundred thousand to buy over 300 dogs and transported them all the way to her Tianjin shelter. She even got down on her kneels to beg a dog dealer for a golden retriever. This scene was captured and went viral on the internet. And Yang XiaoYun has become famous by it.

Duan: I heard from her she saves dogs from Yulin…save dog etc…etc…so I especially admire her.

At the Dog Meat Festival a year later, the two of them met in Yulin. Yang spent a lot of money again to purchase hundreds of dogs to transport to Tianjin. Duan called for other dog lovers in Kunming and provided CNY 19000 for Yang’s transportation. The two of them are both dog lovers, what has made them become so hostile against each other now? Duan said it is because what Yang did that destroy her belief in Yang’s legend.

Duan: After giving her the money, she did not leave. And she did not leave the next day. And then there were lots of reporters… interviewing her all day. By the first look of it, we know she was actually putting on a show. And we feel we have been duped.

At Yang XiaoYun’s shelter in Beichen, Tianjin

Yang: Grateful… good doggie…he knows I rescued him from far away…specially good

Reporter: This dog is from Yulin?

Yang: Correct.

These are the two yards in Tianjin Yang has rented after she came back from Yulin. She adopted a total of 400 dogs big and small in these two yards, the expenses everyday are consistently high for this one shelter only.

Yang: Feeding them in order…this food will be finished in one day… it costs 1000 a day…and these are just some dogs, not all the dogs.

Reporter: How much is this truck of food?

Yang: This one is cheap.. this is 70 cents per catty. We usually buy the better one which is 1 yuan per catty.

Yang(shouting out): Is there anymore? No more? Mark it down…and calculate later. Wait till I have some help and we’ll calculate together.

In order to rescue stray dogs, Yang spent all her money and she even sold her two flats in Tianjin. Now she lives on debts and public donations and is barely coping. Since there are too many dogs and not enough space, the dogs even live in Yang’s bedroom in the shelter. There are feces and urine everywhere with unbearable stink that no normal people can endure. Yet, Yang is used to such environment and feels that she is living with her own children.

Yang: I call them my daughters and my sons. They are my emotional support. I don’t care what people say, they are my emotional support.

Yang said she has hired one or two workers at her other shelters. Although the shelters are always lacking of money, food and labor, she has never thought of giving up on rescuing stray dogs.

Yang: I was crushed with the death of my love in 1995, I then began picking up strays. Humans are emotional being. You live with them everyday. When you’re happy, they’re happy. When you sit there depressed, they will just look at you. They know you, they understand you. So to we people who have dogs, with dogs it is better than with people.

Although Yang said she loves dogs more than life; there are people like Duan, who have been to her shelters said Yang does not love dogs, but abuse dogs instead.

Yue Yue (animal protection volunteer from Beijing): The four of us went there, what I saw is that male dogs, female dogs, sick dogs, and healthy dogs were not separated. All dogs are together, feces everywhere. That is what I saw.

Yang: That’s right, of course there are feces when I don’t clean well. But you look, there are feces even after I clean it right? After I clean this yard, I have to feed them, and I go to the other yard to clean. You can see the other yard just now. There are so many dogs, they eat and they drink.

Yang XiaoYun explained that in the shelter, all sick dogs are isolated and grouped together in the small yard awaiting treatments. That is why people subjectively think all of them are in bad conditions. But in a different yard of the shelter are all healthy dogs. Some dog lovers say Yang exaggerated her work and that she has different agenda.

Yue Yue: She doesn’t take good care of the dogs. She just cheats money. She gets pity from kindhearted people using the dogs’ miserable conditions.

Yang: You see what I’m facing is already difficult enough. I’m 66 years old, alone. I’m so old, with so many dogs, you take a look at the dump I sleep in, you take a look at what kind of a life I live! Right? People need to have conscience. Whose money did I cheat exactly? Whose money did I cheat? You can show proof? You can sue me. I’m old…I will not. My dogs…I tell everyone that I won’t share not even one dog hair with them. I won’t give the dogs to them. They don’t love the dogs.

An elderly woman who begged a dog dealer in order save a life, is now dragged into the controversy of dog abuse and cheating. Such controversy has even drawn the involvement of various local and foreign media. Being at the center of the controversy, Yang XiaoYun is very upset about the people and disturbance against her. As Duan appeared at Yang’s door wanting to investigate Yang’s identity, Yang believed Duan was in fact there to take away her “kids” from her. And this explains the fight scene between the two at the beginning of this program.

Dec 1, 2015 Home of Yang XiaoYun’s son

Yang has not been to her son’s place for over a month. If not for what happened this morning, Yang would not have come to her son’s home today. She is in desperate need of some comfort from her family.

Yang: Which law did I break? I have adopted many strays for 20 years, what law did I break? Why should I let them see? What kind of qualifications do they have?

Yang’s daughter-in-law: She did this one thing in her life, how to say….. as we cannot object to her, so we just support her.

Because of the dogs, Yang fought with her son and her son left home for three years. Yang even made it clear that she cares dogs more than her family. As her son and daughter-in-law cannot change the stubborn Yang, they have now become Yang’s shelter volunteers.

Daughter-in-law: we really treat the dogs well. The meals I cook for her, she doesn’t eat them herself but feed them all to the dogs. And she spends hundreds and hundreds of money to buy food for dogs. She’s happy to spend more money on dogs than on people.

Yang: I treat the dogs better than my grandchild, and my daughter-in-law is not happy about it…

Daughter-in-law: My boy…we can’t even see her a few times a year.

Yang: There’s nothing I can do. I see dogs better than life. I even abandon my son, my daughter-in-law, and grandchild. I can’t do anything about it.

Yang: You have time tomorrow. You come help me give injections to the dogs.

Daughter-in-law: Ok… do I need to bring water?

Yang: No, there is water. My daughter-in-law knows how to give injections.

Daughter-in-law(jokes): I’m a vet.

The next day at Yang XiaoYun’s shelter

Yang: Hua Hua…..

Such a big shelter is managed by Yang XiaoYun alone. A dog wandered out of the shelter when Yang was not aware. Yang went looking for the dog by herself, just like looking for her own daughter. Yang believes it is best for the strays to be with her.

Half hour later

Yang: You finished playing? Have enough fun? Let’s go back and eat. Come on Hua Hua. You’ve made me so tired…Hua Hua…I couldn’t find you…I couldn’t eat.

Yang XiaoYun is a kindhearted elderly woman. But her kind heart is helpless and fragile, and she fights alone hoping to save all the strays by herself. Her shelters are disorganized, she cannot hire permanent workers due to insufficient funds, and the facilities are shabby. All these problems lead to the criticism against her. However, as the goal of all is to respect lives and to protect them; everybody should just sit down, and discuss ways of working together, and this would be the scene that the public truly want to see. END OF TRANSLATION

Below is a particularly distasteful meme produced for social media by a Ms Alice Harding who announces herself as a dear friend of the charity’s CEO  and a ‘full time volunteer’ for the charity since May 2015.

Interestingly there is a Chinese social media report, posted in 2012, that a woman dog rescuer, named Duan of Kunming, is a known trade dealer in dogs. http://bbs.tianya.cn/post-290-47691-1.shtml and brief translation of that report is as follows:

” The Kunming Animal Protection Farm run by Duan is a fake. Duan is in fact an infamous dog trader in Xishan Bijiguan of Kunming, everybody from Bijiguan knows.
Dogs in Duan’s private farm are for breeding purpose. They breed dogs for money.
Duan has always been living on dogs, please do not trust Duan, she even let her worker beat the 4 stray dogs to death nearby her place earlier, and the rescue station there was founded by another aunt, not Duan. That rescue station run by another aunt always met with Duan’s hostility. Duan always stop the water supply for the dogs, force them to move (that aunt has 150 dogs under her care, tel no: 13888991467). This woman Duan has loads of fake tears, she uses stray dogs to cheat kind people’s money.”

News received today is that Mankind Films are on their way back to visit Mrs Yang.

To share the petition, currently with 5,745 supporters, asking for an investigation that may help Mrs Yang help her dogs, please see https://www.change.org/p/investigate-the-uk-registered-charity-known-as-no-to-dog-meat-ntdm-aka-the-world-protection-of-dogs-and-cats-in-the-meat-trade