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| A severely ill dog receives treatment at a pet hospital in Beijing in April 2011. It was among more than 500 dogs rescued by animal lovers from a truck transporting the animals bound for a restaurant menu. Lin Hui / For China Daily |
A spokeswoman for Tencent said on Tuesday that the Internet company will keep its word and pay the costs of keeping hundreds of dogs saved from slaughter two years ago by animal rights campaigners.
The pledge was made in a Beijing court, where Tencent and the China Small Animal Protection Association were defendants in a lawsuit lodged by 10 hospitals that had treated the rescued animals.
The case stems from an incident on April 15, 2011, when volunteers for the association spotted a truck loaded with more than 500 dogs on the Beijing-Harbin expressway.
After alerts were posted on Tencent's micro-blogging service, the truck was forced to stop when more than 10 volunteers rushed to the Tongzhou section of the highway and blocked the vehicle from moving for more than 15 hours.
The dogs had been headed for slaughterhouses in Changchun, Jilin province.
After negotiations with the driver, pet service provider Leepet Holding Corp and the philanthropic Shangshan Foundation purchased the animals for 115,000 yuan ($18,790).
To encourage more care and attention for the charitable action, Sun Zhonghuai, vice-president of Tencent, said on his micro blog on April 16 that the company would take care of the dogs after being rescued.
Volunteers delivered some of the dogs to the headquarters of the animal protection association, where they were given medical care while waiting for adoption.
White angels in Chongqing South West Hospital
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