China animal rescuer shares home with 1,300 dogs

She also lives with one hundred cats, four horses and a scattering of rabbits and birds

Last updated: December 07, 2020 | 10:46

AFP and Compiled by Christian Borbon, Senior Web Editor

2 MIN READ

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Twenty years ago, Wen Junhong saved an abandoned dog from the streets of Chongqing in southwestern China.

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She now shares her home with more than 1,300 of them, and they keep on coming. After taking in that first dog, a Pekinese she named Wenjing - "gentle and quiet" in Chinese - Wen found she couldn't stop.

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She says she was driven by worries about what strays face on the streets in China, from accidents to being snatched up for the dog meat trade.

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As well as the abandoned pets and strays that are regularly left in her front yard, Wen says she receives calls "every day to help more dogs"

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And it's not just canines that the 68-year-old has a soft spot for.

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She also lives with one hundred cats, four horses and a scattering of rabbits and birds. "Some people say I'm a psychopath," she admits.

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Her day starts at 4 am with the unenviable task of clearing 20-30 barrels of overnight dog waste and cooking more than 500 kg (1,100 pounds) of rice, meat and vegetables for the animals.

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The waste gets burned in the back yard, sending a continuous plume of smoke into the sky.

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Every room in the two-storey house is full of cages, piled next to and on top of each other. | An employee feeding rescued dogs.

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Surrounded by fences and locked gates, her hillside location is the latest in a series of homes after complaints from neighbours forced her and her charges to keep moving.

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She has six staff, who sleep in a room piled high with bags of dog food.

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Wen finances the operation with proceeds from selling her apartment, loans of up to 60,000 yuan ($9,100) and her pension and life savings from an earlier career as an environmental technician.

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She also receives donations after gaining attention on social media, where she has been dubbed "Chongqing Auntie Wen". Wen hopes the attention will lead to adoptions, but new arrivals far outpace those being re-homed.

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Even with her love of animals and a team to help her, Wen admits re-homing strays is a struggle. "It's really very hard," she laments. "There are more and more dogs and each of them gets less space."

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