“I have never been married, but I have hundreds of children,” said Zhang Luping, founder of the Beijing Human and Animal Environment Education Center (the Animal Center). “God sent me to this planet and gave me the mission of taking care of helpless and homeless dogs and cats. I will never let Him down.”
　　
　　The Animal Center, one of a few nongovernmental animal welfare organizations in China, was formally established in April 2001. Its animal shelter, registered with the local government, is the only one in China that combines animal rescue and adoption, as well as animal welfare education.
　　“Anyone who knows me says I am crazy,” she said. “They cannot understand why I gave up everything for a bunch of stray animals.”
　　Zhang was born into a well-to-do family. At the age of 15, she joined the army as a performer. She engaged in real estate business after retiring from active military service in 1987, when the nation was full of opportunities for getting rich due to its reform and opening-up policy. Once a self-described “wealthy businesswoman,” Zhang said she had earned millions of dollars in the real estate business in the late 1980s.
　　In 1991, when she was in her 30s, Zhang developed breast cancer. After a successful treatment, she forged a close bond with adopted animals that brought her joy and comfort during her recovery. She also noticed that many animals were being abandoned by their owners virtually every day. As a result, her innate love of all creatures and sense of social responsibility prompted her to become a caregiver for stray animals.
　　In the past 10-plus years, Zhang gave up opportunities to go abroad for further study and her lucrative real estate business, as well as other comfortable life choices, as she was determined to do more to help abandoned and mistreated animals.
　　In 2001, she mortgaged her last property and set up the Animal Center with the help of the International Foundation for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
　　
　　Odyssey to build the center
　　
　　“My friends know that I love animals. So they would send stray dogs and cats to my office whenever they found them,” Zhang recalled. Gradually, her home and office became filled with dogs and cats.
　　The number of abandoned animals hit a record high during 1995-97, after the Beijing Municipal Government enacted a restrictive regulation on dog ownership in 1994 for hygiene reasons. The regulation required every pet owner to pay an initial registration fee of over $600 and an annual fee of over $120 to the government.
　　The cost prevented low-income families from owning dogs, and “after the regulation took effect, lots of dogs were either abandoned on streets or put to sleep,” said Zhang, who took many of the strays home with her. Knowing her love for dogs, many owners secretly left their animals outside her office and waited for her to adopt them.
　　At that time, the police kept a close watch on dog owners and would have the animal put to sleep if the owner did not pay the registration fee. In order to keep her dogs and cats safe, Zhang moved frequently from one remote suburban area to another. She totally abandoned her real estate business and devoted her attention to the animals she had collected.
　　In 1997, she established an animal refuge in the mountainous area of Mentougou, a suburb of Beijing, without formal government approval, leaving her in a kind of limbo. However, the effort eventually paid off.
　　In 2000, she was invited to an animal protection conference held in Las Vegas promoted by HIS-Human Services Inc. “People were very surprised to find that I am Chinese,” Zhang said. “They were also surprised to find that China has this kind of animal protection center.”
　　Zhang said she strongly felt it was her responsibility to fulfill her mission, and she frequently asked herself how she could do better than animal welfare activists in developed countries.
　　To provide easier access, on April 28, 2001, the Animal Center was moved to its current location in Xiaotangshan, Changping District, with 10 dog shelters, one cat shelter and three poultry shelters, as well as educational facilities and offices.
　　A visit by Jane Goodall, a renowned animal expert, marked a turning point for the Animal Center, which then received government approval. Goodall said, “This is my happiest visit to China because this is one of the few places in the world where adopted animals are not confined in cages. Here, I have felt people’s respect for life. For everyone who comes here, it is an experience of purification.”
　　During the SARS epidemic in 2003, Zhang’s 2,000-square-meter shelter was jammed with dogs and cats, which many people considered potential carriers of the SARS virus. Zhang picked up over 150 abandoned dogs and cats on streets and saved many that were about to be killed.
　　
　　Promoting animal welfare awareness
　　
　　WELL LOVED: All dogs are well cared for despite their disabilities
　　In the Animal Center, every dog and cat has a name, and the employees can tell the history of every adopted animal. Each dog receives one to two hours of human contact every day. Every kennel has its own exercise area so that small groups of dogs can exercise at the same time.
　　The center employs around 20 people, and has around 200 volunteers currently. It has attracted over 1,000 volunteers in the past few years, who help bathe the animals, maintain a clean environment and maintain the website.
　　The center’s senior staff member Bai Yiming noted that Zhang treats every animal as her own child. “There is no one in China like her, who gives up a successful business career to save abandoned animals. The Animal Center is her home. She takes care of nearly everything in the center and sleeps only a few hours a day.”
　　Zhang said she has been stunned by the fact that many people, including children, treated animals cruelly. To raise people’s awareness of protecting animals and promoting animal welfare, Zhang set up a special humane education classroom to provide vivid lessons. “We should teach our children to love animals and all kinds of life at a very young age,” she said, adding that she was shocked to find that four primary school students were trying to tear a cat apart “just to hear the desperate shriek of a dying animal!”
　　One story posted on the exhibition board at the center is very eye-catching. Under the title “Those who mistreat animals may be a potential danger to society,” the story cites a case study by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation that finds that almost all violent criminals mistreated animals when they were young.
　　Zhang noted that some parents and teachers have already realized the importance of educating children about bioethics. “But it is still an embarrassment to find that most of the kindergarten classes that regularly visit the center are from schools with foreign backgrounds, either affiliated with embassies or totally or partially foreign-funded,” she said. “Our kids’ lives are filled with mathematics, English and playing musical instruments in an effort to get the upper hand in various school entrance exams. But how many of them are taught bioethics and loving animals?”
　　In the shelters, children can have close contact with dogs and cats and attendants respond warmly to every question. After seeing the children’s sad faces upon learning why many of the dogs and cats are disabled, Zhang said it is a great comfort for her effort.
　　Zhang said more and more people are coming to the Animal Center, either to adopt a dog or to teach their children about animal protection. She said she has noticed a slight difference in the approach to adoption between foreigners and her countrymen. “Usually, foreigners will sit with a group of dogs and cats and pick the one that likes them most, in spite of any disabilities,” she said. “But we Chinese people usually pick up the one we like most.” This, she said, reflects different views toward animals of Westerners and Chinese.
　　In addition to running the center, Zhang lectures at universities, high schools and primary schools in an effort to raise students’ awareness of animal protection.
　　She also works closely with the Beijing Municipal Government, and successfully lobbied the government to amend the regulation on raising pets. The new regulation, which took effect on October 15, 2003, aims at achieving a more “scientific and humane” management of pets and clearly states that those who mistreat animals will be punished. The first year registration fee for dogs was lowered to 1,000 yuan ($124), one fifth of the original rate, with an annual fee of 500 yuan ($62).
　　“It was a big step forward in the city’s legislature,” Zhang said. “In the past, animals would be punished if their owners did not obey the regulation. However, the new regulation says the contrary.”
　　Since 1999, the IFAW, the first international organization to be involved in pet rescue and protection in China, has aided the Animal Center’s construction and development by providing funds, skills, concepts and management advice. Zhang also said she received the greatest help from Effem Foods (Beijing) Co. Ltd., which has been providing 90 percent of the food for the dogs and cats.
　　However, funding remains an ongoing headache, with employees’ salaries and medical expenses representing a substantial expenditure for the center. As a result, Zhang, now in her 50s, is thinking about going back into business. “Although my ‘children’ are living a relatively comfortable life here, I think it is my responsibility to give them more―a much cleaner environment, pet rooms up to international standards and highly skilled keepers,” she said. “I have to earn more.”
　　The woman who has poured her life savings into helping stray animals is a rather unique figure in a country where virtually all kinds of animals are viewed as food more than as pets. In 2003, Zhang received the Champion for Animals IFAW Award for her special contribution to animal rescue and the animal welfare campaign.
　　Yan Geling, one of the most influential Chinese novelists overseas, said, “In China, the concept of protecting animals has not been well recognized by citizens, which makes Zhang Luping’s work much more precious and remarkable.”
　　As Zhang noted, “Animals, the same as human beings, are sons and daughters of the earth. Respecting all life is a symbol of human civilization.”

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