Dog days of winter
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Every time she wants to quit, Ha Wenjin thinks of all her dogs needing a warm home for the cold winters.
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Pingan Afu employs 12 feeders at the farm in Tangquan county. They feed dogs twice a day and clean the kennels. |
Known to neighboring villagers as the "biggest home for dogs in the world," the Pingan Afu stray dog shelter in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province has just been told to move for the sixth time in eight years.
Animal non-governmental organization Pingan Afu has supported these kennels for more than 1,500 dogs in a Tangquan county farm for five years.
This summer Ha was told by the government that they must move before November, being the last "nail household" to make way for the "fertile farmland transformation" project.
Ha managed to find and rent an abandoned mine as a new home for her dogs, but the new location lacks even the most basic facilities.
After selling her car and house, Ha already boasts debts of more than 1 million yuan and must pay at least 17-18,000 yuan a month for dog food. It costs at least 2 yuan a dog a day consuming the cheapest bulk dog food available on the market. That's not counting vaccines and maintenance.
Denied government funding, the majority of non-governmental organizations in China are also strictly forbidden from raising funds by themselves.
The volunteers for Pingan Afu are mostly college students, caring but poor. They have tried hard to help, decorating the shelter with paintings, carrying bricks and helping to build a fence. There are even volunteers who have come all the way from Hong Kong to support the lucky dogs.
