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| Eddie - almost a meal but now a happy companion dog. |
AS we celebrate the first weeks of the Chinese New Year of the Dog, the Animals Asia team is looking forward to a year of incredible opportunity for us all to join together in the creation of a better world for a species which has so much earned the right to be called our best friend.
As Eddie snoozes by my chair without a care in the world - a dog plucked seconds before being killed for food in a live animal market in China - my heart aches for the millions of miserable dogs and cats he left behind. But there is hope.
Recently on one of the most popular Chinese TV stations in Hong Kong, a wonderful programme celebrating dogs was aired. There was Eddie, there were our Dr Dogs, our Professor Paws, romping through hospitals, schools and homes for the blind, deaf and elderly - all reaching ecstatic recipients with their exuberant love of life and people and showing that dogs (and cats) are our friends - not food.
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| The look in this dog's eyes as it awaits its turn for slaughter reveals the extent of its understanding. |
Things are changing fast, and we continue to be inundated by people across Asia who can no longer stomach such cruelty and disrespect towards these animals who live to protect us, live to love us ... and deserve better.
In the Chinese calendar the element for 2006 is fire - meaning that this year's Dog energy is literally lit by the fire to get things accomplished. Over the next 12 months, together with your help, Animals Asia will use every resource it has to hand to accelerate this driving new force, in the hope that one day every dog in Asia will have his day. "A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself." (Josh Billings). - Jill Robinson MBE, Animals Asia Foundation, www.animalasia.org
