Sanctuary Stories
The Collie Saved From China’s Illegal Dog Trade
Remy was terrified of humans after her initial rescue, but now she loves to play and snuggle
In the midst of these turbulent times, Tina Peters is grateful that there is increasing attention on the cruelty inherent in the global animal trade and in China’s outdoor slaughterhouses. Peters is the vice president for Beijing-based animal rescue group, No Dogs Left Behind. The group, founded in 2016 by American Jeff Beri, specializes in emergency response evacuations of dogs from wet markets and other parts of China. As much of the world copes with the COVID-19 pandemic, and focuses on the virus’s possible origin in a wet market, Peters says Pandora’s Box has finally been opened. One dog in particular, she says, a smooth collie rescued this past January, has since become “the face of what we have been trying to do for four years, pulling dogs out of these markets.”
Peters recalls when she and Beri received that phone call in January, “about some dogs that were being held by a dog farmer. He was selling them to a wet market. They were being held in cages. They…
