Woman travels 1,000 miles to adopt dog rescued from China meat market

A dog lover traveled over 1,000 miles to come to the rescue of an adorable malamute from China’s brutal dog meat trade.

Nikki Swannell, from Leeds in the U.K., a dog groomer, traveled to Paris and back to provide Rupert a new home. The cheeky, bear-faced pooch was saved from a dog meat restaurant north of Beijing, but came so close to suffering the grisly fate of so many dogs like him.

Swannell heard of Rupert’s plight via charity No To Dog Meat, which opposes the cruel slaughter of all animals for food, fur and “traditional” medicine. It was founded by Julia De Cadenet, an activist lawyer who set the charity up after witnessing firsthand the brutal reality of China’s live meat markets in 2009.

For the past decade, No To Dog Meat has been campaigning against Yulin, the summer festival held in the southern Chinese province of Guangxi, in which hundreds of pets are slaughtered.

Dog and cat meat remains popular with locals from Yulin. A 2023 Statista survey found 73 percent of Yulin region residents said that they ate dog or cat meat once or several times a year.

“Rupert was rescued when his owner tried to sell him to a meat market,” Swannell told Newsweek.

De Cadenet added: “His owner had unsuccessfully tried to get all his teeth removed and did not want him as he was no longer a cute puppy.”

Instead, De Cadenet and her charity came to Rupert’s rescue. He was rescued along with Daphne, a golden retriever, who was saved from a brutal slaughterhouse at Yulin. Having negotiated the release of both dogs, the challenge was to find them a home.

Swannell had lost her own Alaskan malamute, Barney, a couple of years earlier and, after careful consideration, decided she was ready to open her heart to another new dog.

“I traveled with my daughter to Paris to welcome Rupert and Daphne, we live in Yorkshire so it was a 1,000-mile-round trip, but oh so worth it,” Swannell said.

Daphne spent a couple of days with Swannell and her family before heading off to her own happy-ever-after in a new forever home. Rupert, meanwhile, has “slotted in so amazingly” to Swannell’s life.

“He is the most well-mannered, polite and loving boy, it is actually unbelievable what he has come from and how he is,” Swannell said. “He howls in a morning when he sees our faces and talks to us,” she added, noting that Rupert seems to live and do everything “with a smile on his face.”

“He has seen the horrors and knows and appreciates the life he now has.”

While Rupert and Daphne’s stories had happy endings, De Cadenet is eager to stress that there are many more dogs in similar situations to the ones they once were in and in desperate need of help.

“In China, the dog meat trade is still an unregulated money-making industry fueled by criminal gangs. People regularly have their beloved pets stolen without recourse, and many people abandon older animals,” she said.

Unscrupulous traders can easily load them into trucks and sell them for food and fur, and De Cadenet said the problem is only getting worse. “Yulin is a thriving city, and our evidence shows that dog farms around the area are on the rise,” she added.