In this dog-eat-dog world, these plucky pups refuse to meat their maker.
Every dog has its day. But today, seven cunning canines are being celebrated, worldwide, after joining forces and fleeing a meat factory in China, making a 10-mile trek home as a four-legged “band of brothers.”
Their great escape was captured in a moving video with over 230 million views on the Chinese social media platform Douyin, the South China Morning Post reported.
“They resemble a band of little brothers in distress, moving in unison – nothing like stray dogs,” said a netizen, surnamed Lu, who filmed the wag-nificent seven walking along a highway in busy highway in Changchun, Jilin province, after their epic jailbreak.
It had been a ruff road for the canines, who had reportedly been snatched up by individuals operating a dog meat shop, according to social media accounts. However, they allegedly escaped a truck by allegedly chewing their way through a cage inside the vehicle on March 16, although no one witnessed their escape.
They then em-bark-ed on an epic 10.5-mile journey across roads and through fields — like the canine version of the “Long Walk,” Newsweek reported.
In the clip, the furry septet is seen walking in formation along a guardrail on the side of the expressway.
At one point, the homeward-bound canines surrounded an injured German shepherd as a Corgi at the looked around to see that no doggos had been left behind. A separate video shows the group making their way through a field.
Local rescue group Bitter Coffee Stray Dog Base attributed the pack’s coordination and synergy to the animals’ familiarity with one another, stemming from the fact that they hailed from the same village and interacted regularly before they were taken.
Lu repeatedly tried to guide the group — which also consisted of Golden Retrievers, Labradors and Pekinese dogs — to safety, but to no avail as they continued on their epic trek. So he shared the footage to Douyin with the hopes that authorities would help rescue them.
In response, the aforementioned rescue group sent volunteers — and even a drone — to ensure the pups’ safe passage home.
All seven pooches reportedly returned safely on March 18, whereupon they were reunited with their owners, a volunteer told a local outlet, per the SCMP.
“We are so lucky they came back, not to be eaten,” gushed one owner, while another praised their Corgi’s alleged ability to find its way home.
Viewers were also moved to tears by the heartwarming Odyssey, with some comparing it to the 1961 Disney classic “101 Dalmatians.”
“This needs to be a movie,” gushed one fan, while another wrote, “coolest story on social media – we needed some heartwarming good news.”
“So brave of the Corgi to lead his fellow dogs back to their owners away from the dog meat trade thieves,” fawned a third. “Their owners must protect them from future thievery and keep them safe. This is a beautiful triumph for the brave dogs and my heart goes out to them.”
The identity of the dog-nappers is yet unclear. Dog theft is considered a criminal offense in China, with penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment depending on the animal’s value.
Nonetheless, criminals continue to steal pooches to fuel the appetite for canine protein — which is viewed as a way to stay warm and sated during frigid winters — as raising dogs for food is an expensive enterprise.
Cities like Changchun, Harbin, and Dalian have reported multiple incidents of pets being snatched off the street.
Animal advocates have repeatedly condemned the practice.
“Not only does it cause enormous animal suffering, but it is also almost entirely fuelled by crime and, perhaps most significantly right now, poses an undeniable human health threat with the risk of diseases such as rabies and cholera,” Wendy Higgins of Humane Society International (HSI) told the Guardian in 2020.
Eating dog is not explicitly banned in China, although Shenzhen became one of the first cities on the Mainland to ban consuming cats and dogs in 2020.
