Pets In Need goes global

Last month, two Pets In Need staff members traveled to China to meet with and observe animal rights activists opposed to the dog meat trade. 

Program Director Marsa Hollander and Adoption Specialist Barbara Paglia arrived in Beijing, China, in late August, where they were met by Andrea Gung, founder and executive director of Duo Duo Project, a Sunnyvale, California-based nonprofit dedicated to ending the dog meat trade in China and closing slaughterhouses for good. 

Over the nine-day trip, Hollander and Paglia traveled throughout northeastern China where they met with a number of animal rights activities including several who regularly intercept trucks carrying dogs—sometimes hundreds at a time--to slaughterhouses. 

They visited a camp in Dalian where teachers are helping children understand the value of caring for and respecting animals, and they toured a shelter devoted to housing and rehabilitating disabled dogs. 

The pair visited five rural cities during their travels and were some of the first Americans ever to visit two of the cities. 

“What was most striking to me is that despite cultural and political differences, we were united with everyone we met by our love of animals,” said Paglia. “They envision a world where a healthy or treatable animal is never put down, just as we do.” 

The partnership with Duo Duo Project began last year when a representative from China spent two weeks shadowing the team at Pets In Need’s Redwood City shelter to better understand shelter operations and humane education programs. Hollander and Paglia’s visit was a continuation of this exchange and was generously underwritten by Duo Duo Project. 

“I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to travel to China and work with leaders in the animal welfare movement there,” Hollander said. “I came away from the trip excited by what I learned about coalition-building and community organizing and I look forward to implementing some of what I learned here in Silicon Valley.”