China

The SPCA China Outreach programme represents our commitment to improve animal welfare, not just in our city but beyond our borders.

Working closely with Effem Mars, and in cooperation with the Chinese Agricultural University (CAU), the SPCA continued to help improve veterinary standards. This helped create a partially-accredited training course in Beijing which was expanded to Shanghai a year later, before being rolled out to numerous other cities across the Mainland.

We introduced our Cat Colony Care Programme at the 2^nd China Companion Animal Symposium in Guangzhou. Delegates were impressed by the results achieved since the program’s inception.

This proved to be a landmark year for our work in the Mainland with three key initiatives. Firstly, our experienced rescue team worked hand-in-hand with local animal welfare organisations, public security bureaus and volunteers after the earthquake in Sichuan to save around 100 animals. Every one of them was also vaccinated against rabies and de-sexed prior to re-homing.

Our second initiative saw us providing help and funds to the Chongqing Small Animals Protection Association (SAPA) to improve its facilities to better cope with the animals displaced by the earthquake. This included renovation of its holding facilities, surgery/recovery room and an examination room.

Our third initiative was to share our experiences with Mainland academics and law professionals as they drafted laws to promote animal welfare.

The work with academics and lawyers came to fruition when the historic Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Law of the PRC was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

This was a watershed year as research showed significantly improved respect for animal welfare on the Mainland which led to a backlash against both the fur trade and the “meat dog” industry. This was the perfect backdrop to further promote animal welfare which included presenting the “SPCA Canine Welfare Awards” at the Asia for Animals Conference, the first such awards in China. We also provided advice to various authorities across the country on how they could better manage urban animals.

This was a year full of significant milestones, starting with a co-authored humane education booklet for primary and secondary students that saw 18,500 copies distributed across Guangzhou, Xiamen and Suzhou provinces. Our Inspectors were also able to demonstrate humane dog-handling skills to Public Security representatives from across China.

We were invited by the Guangzhou public security bureau to advise on the construction of a dog shelter which was completed to a very high standard later in the year.

Finally, we formed a partnership with Tencent to create ten short films that delivered a message of respect and concern for animals to China’s public. Many major names in the movie industry including Gigi Leung, Karena Lam, Mavis Fan, Gordon Chan and Karen Mok took part in the project.

Over the past eight years, the SPCA has worked closely with the Shenzhen Education and Adoption Centre to help its program of rescuing and adopting stray animals and supporting its campaign to promote animal welfare education in schools and communities. Our goal is create a high standard of care and education support which can be used as an example to other provinces across the Mainland – and it has had an impact. In the five years between 2017-2022, we de-sexed over 4,200 stray animals of which 16% were subsequently adopted. We have also helped roll out animal welfare education classes in eight cities across the Mainland, providing 57,000 textbooks to students with more than 4,000 people participating in our courses every year. We also recently opened a cat adoption centre and a pet hospital close to Shenzhen Bay Port and a second dog adoption centre in Louhu Port.

Thank you for your continued support of our mission to improve animal welfare across the whole of China. One of the best ways you can make a difference and allow us to carry on our work is to make a donation to the China Animal Welfare Fund.