BEIJING — After spotting a truck packed with hundreds of whimpering dogs on a highway, a man put out a call on a microblogging site, begging fellow animal lovers to help him force the driver to release the animals.
About 200 people responded, blockading the truck at a toll booth for 15 hours until they finally negotiated the release of the 580 or so dogs for $17,000, saving them from being slaughtered and served as food.
Many of the dogs were dehydrated, injured and suffering from a potentially deadly virus. At least 68 were hospitalized at Dongxing Animal Hospital in Beijing, where dozens of volunteers were helping Tuesday to clean cages, mop floors and disinfect visitors.
The rescue was a rare successful case of social activism in China, where authorities are waging a brutal crackdown on dissent. But the blockade may be more remarkable for what it shows about changes in Chinese society over the past decade as fantastic economic growth has bred a middle class with new sensibilities.
Pet ownership was once rare because the Communist Party condemned it as bourgeois and most people couldn’t afford to own cats or dogs. Both animals were typically eaten, and Friday night’s rescue has set off a debate that underscores the clash between those age-old traditions and the country’s growing animal-rights movement.
“As people became well-off, they had money to raise dogs, and while raising these dogs, they developed feelings for dogs,” said Lu Yunfeng, a sociology professor at Peking University.
Still, there was some criticism of the rescue. An editorial in the Legal Daily newspaper accused activists of breaking the law and putting animals’ rights over people’s.
