She spent her life teaching children right from wrong.
On June 20, 2015, retired teacher Yang Xiaoyun put that same lesson into action, one cage at a time.
At 65 years old, Yang traveled nearly 1,500 miles from her home in Tianjin to the markets of Yulin, in China’s Guangxi province, right as the city’s annual dog meat festival was getting underway.
Instead of turning away from the rows of cramped cages, she walked straight toward them, and started buying dogs.
One by one, then dozens at a time, until she had spent roughly $1,100 (about 7,000 yuan) to free nearly 100 dogs from being slaughtered and eaten.
The festival, held every year around the summer solstice, has drawn growing criticism from activists both in China and abroad.
According to the Hong Kong based charity Animals Asia, many of the dogs sold for meat in China are stolen pets or strays, often kept in brutal conditions before being “processed” for the trade.
Comedian Ricky Gervais and thousands of others joined the #StopYulin2015 movement that same week, calling attention to the cruelty behind the event.
Yang didn’t wait for laws to change. She simply acted, loading cage after cage of frightened, trembling dogs onto her transport home to Tianjin, where they’ll be cared for, fed, and given the chance at a real life instead of a tragic end.
One woman. A market full of fear. Nearly 100 lives saved because she refused to look away.
Would you go this far to save a life you’d never even met?
Source:
time – “A woman in China reportedly paid over $1,000 Saturday to save 100 dogs from being killed and eaten during a dog-meat festival in the southern city of Yulin.”