An Open Letter to Animal Welfare Advocates on China's Ms. Duo Zirong and on Hoarding Animals

WARNING! Graphic material. Not suitable for children.

Recently, there has been some international press about a woman in China, Ms Duo, who has been dedicating herself to helping stray and abandoned cats. While the overall press has been positive, there are many unreported details and unaddressed issues.

NEWS UPDATE: It was reported by a local web site that Ms. Duo took in 480 more cats (news officially out on 29 July, but local animal rescuers knew of this a few days earlier) and Ms. Duo has rented a place near the location where she had the other 1,200 cats (now reportedly down to fewer than 300 cats). Also, an animal rescuer shot a video at Ms. Duo's and in this video she is quoted as saying, her cats will not have a breakout of the contagious Feline Panleukopaenia because Buddha will "protect" her.

The latest “press” Ms. Duo received was for her supposed rescue of over 800 cats being sent from near Shanghai to South China, ostensibly for food. Ms. Duo had somehow arranged to buy these cats from the transporter/dealers. While the pictures and the story behind it make for good sound bites, we have heard reports from fellow rescuers on the scene that in reality this rescue was more a staged media event. Ms. Duo has allegedly misrepresented what amount of money she paid the dealers for the cats and and the fact that she asked others to pay instead of herself.

The situation remains that there were over 800 cats stolen for food. Intercepting their transport should be a good thing, but proper follow-up is vital for the cats’ long term well-being. It should also be noted that there are four million dogs and cats stolen for the food and fur industry each year in China (millions more worldwide); it is impossible to save them all. Only projects that can carry out a successful intervention and guarantee a long-term positive outcome with the animals' welfare paramount should be supported with financial donations (except for euthanasia, which is often the most humane outcome for animals that have been tortured, seriously injured, carry a chronic disease and/or do not have the potential for a normal life after being healed.).

Please imagine for an instant these 800 cats - It's a hard thing to imagine for most of us. In addition to this unimaginable number of animals is the complication that most of these 800 cats will have diseases ranging from treatable to fatal. They also have not had much human contact except to be beaten, trapped and stuffed into a crate (in Ms. Duo's case, these 800 cats were added to the several hundred cats she already owned). The amount of food, litter, medicine and volunteers that it would take to examine each new cat in regards to their health status and then nurse the ill cats back to health is staggering. No rational person would see this as a one-woman job.

Ms Duo’s “rescue” operations have faced many challenges. Her work so far has sparked serious concerns in Shanghai’s animal rescue community and beyond in regards to the following:

• Sick and newly added animals were not isolated at her apartment/facility.
• Medical treatment is inconsistent at best. There is no treatment plan for follow-up care.
• In most cases, these cats are not spayed or neutered.
• Since taking in these additional 800 cats, more than half have died. This is within a brief two week period. (This could have happened to anyone as these cats were in horrible condition, but please note the above comments on treatment and isolation.)
• Ms. Duo, if asked, will refuse to show anyone receipts for money collected or spent. There is no way of knowing how much money she spends on these animals and/or for what services. She refuses to say what real care they are getting.
• Ms. Duo has offered to let people take some of her cats to a veterinarian for treatment, but on the condition that they return the cat to her overcrowded and high-risk cat population.
• Her media play has begun to inspire a disturbing trend of well-meaning people setting up their own shelters without any of the necessary knowledge, experience, equipment and procedures. Cats that have not yet been tested for contagious diseases that are being taken out of Ms. Duo's home risk spreading diseases to any other cats they come into contact with, as well as volunteers' own pets if they are taking them into their own homes.
• Her behavior and ad hoc rescue group offshoots are inspiring a potential trade in cats. Collectors now know they have another place they can sell the animals they trap besides the market. Ms. Duo has set a negative precedent by paying even a nominal amount for these cats.
• Ms. Duo is known to have "lost" a large number of animals she has taken in. She claims this was due to a door being accidentally left open, allowing cats to escape. True or not, she cannot provide an inventory of animals day-to-day, which means there is no way to successfully audit anything she does.

A group of local volunteers had been working with Ms. Duo prior to the 800 cats being taken in, but because of their continued disillusionment with Ms. Duo, they are trying to do something on their own. They have set up a temporary shelter to take a small number of Ms. Duo's cats but she sent more cats than they said they had capacity for. This group has been using most of its own money to euthanize dying animals, spaying and neutering of relatively healthy animals, administering injections and isolating the sickest (all are sick).

Animal rescue involves much more than taking cats and dogs off the street and housing them. If Ms. Duo had had the facilities in place to isolate sick animals, transparent procedures and sound medical care policies (euthanasia, vaccination and spay/neuter in particular), her motivations would not be questioned.

WARNING! Graphic material. Not suitable for children.

This from Shanghaiist.com "Duo Zirong: Animal lover or animal hoarder?" "This video filmed by local animal rescuers shows what her place really looks like. They say it is no more than a disease-ridden cat concentration camp. The video was taken on Jul 17, 10 days after she got the 800 cats, but nowhere in the video can you find more than 1,000 cats. As far as we know, 21 cats were moved away by volunteers from Petsky.com and 56 sickest ones by movshow.com volunteers, and about 100 sent to St. Antone veterinary hospital by Auntie Li, a local animal rescue worker. Volunteers who were in Duo's shelter say there were no more than 300 cats there, so where did the rest of hundreds of the cats go? Only Duo knows. In the video, she dismisses the possibility of feline panleukopenia (an acute viral infection of cats) breaking out in her shelter because “Buddha will protect me"."

Below are links to local Chinese pet forum blog sites. They contain actual comments from local animal rescuers who personally know Ms. Duo, have visited her, and who have tried to save some of the cats in her possession (SCAA cannot verify their absolute authenticity, but the remarks are repeated many times, by different people)

To translate the articles, go to: http://www.google.com/translate_t and paste the URL into the box.
The following thread discusses how local animal rescuers became involved with Ms. Duo and what they have learned more about her personality, character, and motivations. After meeting with her many times, they slowly became disillusioned

Comments include:
-she slammed a door and one cat's paw was pinched between the doors, but she just walked away as if nothing happened
-someone brought vaccines to her but she refused to give the 800+ cats vaccinations because they were mixed with the older cats she already has.
-a volunteer named Huang Kaiwen, who used to work for her, remarked that the day after she took in the 800+ cats, Ms. Duo said to Huang, "let's get another truck of cats."
-security guard where Ms. Duo lives said there are many bags containing cats corpses placed in the garbage bin daily, and other volunteers also confirmed that only a few number of dead cats have been buried.
-Of the first group of 56 cats taken out of Ms. Duo’s place by a volunteer rescue group, 21 died. The second group was 21 cats with12 dying. The death toll of the first batch of cats moved out of her place was 20 percent, now it's 50 percent, therefore it's easy to conclude that the death rate at her place is over 50 percent. Ms. Duo claimed someone broke her window to let the cats go.
-She feeds the cats raw beef. When people offered her cat food, she refused to take it.
-There were three girls volunteering at Ms. Duo's place for three hours and gave a RMB100 donation when they left. They wanted to adopt a healthy cat but Ms. Duo only let them take the sick ones. This is despite fact that the girls have their own healthy cats at home to which they didn’t want potential diseases spreading.
-No one knows how much money she is receiving from donors nor how much money she actually spends on the cats.
-A local animal rescuer witnessed Ms. Duo's mother-in-law tell others she doesn't have any money right after she took thousands of renminbi in cash donations.

This thread was posted one week after the cats were moved to Ms. Duo’s place:

-text in red is posted by a volunteer who just went to Ms. Duo's place and said that there are fewer than 300 cats left now.

-Long-term rumors had it that Ms. Duo purchased cats from pet shops to keep the numbers high to attract more donations. Many volunteers found that cats at Ms. Duo's place are not safe; many were gone after a year and no one knows what happened to those cats.

This leads us to an important and related topic: hoarding. Hoarding animals is a disease seen in China and around the world. It is often an obsessive-compulsive disorder that leads people to keep acquiring animals regardless of their inability to properly care for each and every animal. In addition to well-meaning hoarders, there are people who hoard for more sinister reasons. Some hoarders have actually been fronts for the trade in cats and dogs for the fur and food industry. Some are ways to solicit money from unsuspecting donors.

While hoarding is a major problem, there are ways to help if the hoarder is willing to listen and to adhere to some basic, reasonable guidelines. SCAA has been successfully assisting a hoarder who sincerely cares for the animals he has and, more importantly, recognizes that his cat rescue operations have spiraled beyond his ability to cope and care for the cats. This man is following strict guidelines for the just over 180 cats he has taken in. SCAA has provided help with vaccinations, spaying/neutering as well as organizing sponsors to build activity areas for the cats. SCAA required this hoarder to immediately stop his animal intake and to isolate sick animals as needed. He has accepted reasonable conditions and has never solicited money or sought media attention. Recognizing that strict policies and procedures can improve the general conditions of the cat population as a whole is what makes him stand out as a hoarder.

Situations like Ms. Duo’s are so disappointing. She has more financial resources than the hoarder that willingly met SCAA’s strict guidelines, and yet, his animals are in much better condition than those that have been or are in Ms. Duo’s care.

E-mails to SCAA have flooded in from around the globe on this hot topic. We hope that we have offered a more realistic perspective from being "on the frontline". We also hope we have made a convincing case for thinking twice about encouraging Ms. Duo. If you really want to make a difference and make a wise investment, please consider donating to SCAA’s medical care costs, educational activities and viable local projects. Or, to help fund efforts to promote and enforce animal welfare policies in China, please support the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in Beijing, the Animals Asia Foundation in Guangzhou, or the UK RSPCA based in London.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!! VOLUNTEER, FOSTER, ADOPT, DONATE TO SCAA!!