About Terminating the Baoshan Project

Dear SCAA Members:

It is with great sadness we inform you that as of 18 July 2006, we have stopped supporting the project at Baoshan. We began this project with great hope in March of 2005; our first and primary SCAA animal rescue/shelter support project. Baoshan is a private facility, owned by a local manufacturer whose love for cats inspired him to open a small cattery. It was two rooms built into the back of his factory. Once people started giving him cats, it was only natural that he was dumped with dogs as well, thus starting a very badly designed kennel to hold about 4 dogs.

Although Baoshan was created from good hearts, the management at this factory knew very little about animal welfare and proper medical care. However, the owner seemed very sincere in wanting to learn more and save the animals in his care, which is why we decided that SCAA would try to support this project. At first there were close to 70 very sick cats, having never received vaccinations and living on sub-standard food that had been a “donation” by what turns out to be a completely non-reputable local “animal protection” organization. Over time, we healed almost all of the animals, first by euthanizing the sickest, then by fostering many of the cats one by one to heal and vaccinate them. Initially, they did not even use cat litter but just metal mesh over a cement hole; the founder was so disgusted she immediately donated litter and SCAA continues to fund this for the cats. Eventually, Baoshan’s cats became a relatively healthy population, except for the fact that new animals were continually dumped, stressing the existing population and going against our policy of required isolation for any new animals put into the facility. They did not have an isolation room and were not willing to build one at the current location. However, they continually mentioned moving in the near future and that they would adhere to these practical and very necessary health requirements at their new location.

At the same time, there were originally over 12 dogs cramped in the kennels, neutered/non-neutered animals together (the same for the cats), dogs with infectious diseases next to healthier dogs, etc. Again, over time, we fostered out each dog, healed them and adopted all of them out, over and over. At one point earlier in 2006, we were down to zero dogs at Baoshan (which lasted less than three days when four more dogs were dumped)!

As our organization continued to grow and more foster parents signed up, we were able to take out significantly more animals from Baoshan; but no matter how many animals we took out, there always seemed to be as many or more the following week. We tried to remain patient as they continued to promise us they were moving to a better location where they could also include an isolation room. They said they would be moving circa September 2005 and it ended up being closer to end of May 2006.

The new facility had (and still has) great potential to be the only relatively decent cattery and small dog shelter in Shanghai. However, since the move our three major requirements remain unmet: no further dumping of animals, no mixture of adults with kittens (another use for the isolation room) and isolation of any new animals to ensure that the healthy population is not affected by illness. Isolation is a must to give us time to take these animals to PAW for diagnosis and assessment of any physical and behavioral problems.

We became even more concerned than usual when at the new location an adult male was allowed to get near kittens and tore one of them apart; director Jaycee Koo found the body. It has reached the point where we fear bringing our younger volunteers not knowing what we will encounter each week.

Nearly reaching our threshold of endurance, we called the Baoshan facility in late June to once again express our concerns. We informed them that with all our Foster Parents overwhelmed with Baoshan kittens (we had recently taken out 18 kittens within two weeks), we absolutely did not have the capacity to take any more. We had counted 27 cats (there were 45, but we had just taken out these 18 kittens) at that time. We stated that new animals must no longer be admitted to Baoshan (and those which were sick, weak kittens or not neutered needed to be isolated) and that many improvements needed to be made. For example, water was not properly hooked up so the cats were drinking sewage water running through the cattery and getting sick; the isolation room windows had no screens on them so the kittens/cats in isolation could easily escape, thus animals had to be put in cages within this room; the kennel sidewalks were not properly built and dangerous for our volunteers to walk on—one member had already fallen. These are just some of the major issues. We asked them to call us when the improvements were made. Soon after, we received a call from the Baoshan representative who reminded us that we owed them our quarterly donation to pay for dog/cat food. SCAA vice-director Sonny Gao stated that we did not plan to donate this sum until the improvements we required were completed. They countered by saying no new animals had been added to the facility and that they were making the improvements slowly (putting in screens in the isolation room and making the dog kennel path was not a priority, but a fish pond for the staff apparently was…).

Three weeks passed with no contact from Baoshan and no visits from SCAA members. We needed to vaccinate two of the dogs and spay one, so we went on 18 July. None of the improvements we asked for had been made, non-neutered dogs were in the same kennels, and the number of cats within this three week period increased from 27 to 48. We took out three starving kittens and made the decision to end the Baoshan project. Two days later, the same Baoshan representative called Sonny Gao to state that the factory owner was hearing rumors that the SCAA founder's personal plan for Baoshan was to euthanize all the animals there as well as the ones we had taken out. They were very concerned that we would not keep our donation commitment and stated that SCAA’s founder was similar in character to the dishonest animal protection organization they had worked with before SCAA.

Ultimately, this cemented our decision to end the Baoshan project. After 17 months of exhausting work adopting out their sick animals and investing 44% of our entire budget (see below) to healing animals their own staff and aiyi's dump (including the owner who has 30 cats of his own and we believe puts his own cats in when they have health problems or are pregnant); being accused of killing their animals and making profits from the sale of their animals is an accusation SCAA and its volunteers do not deserve and will not tolerate.

Points to Note:

They have stated over and over again that we have not taken out that many of their animals:

Fact: We have adopted out approximately 85% of the animals we have supported from the Baoshan facility, roughly 183 animals. As of 25 July, we have 55 animals in foster care with 50 of them Baoshan animals. It is simple fact.

They have stated that we have not spent very much money in support of their facility.

Fact: In the 17 months that we have supported the Baoshan facility, we have spent:

Medical care: 126,749 RMB
Food: 6,640 RMB
Litter: 8,800 RMB
Transport: 2,249 RMB
Total: 144,438 RMB (US$ 17,831)

In cash terms alone, this is 44% of all the funds we have raised to date (RMB 285,998). This does not include the cost for the donated van (US$ 1,000/month), generously donated by AGS Four Winds, without which we could not even visit the Baoshan facility; our own personal transport for emergencies and taxis delivering animals to/from events, PAW and Baoshan and the expenses for all our foster care parents who provide food, litter, time, effort and love.

They have stated that they are worried our founder has been euthanizing their animals and SCAA’s plan is to continue to do so, including the un-adoptable cats in their facility.

Fact: The founder respects that the Baoshan owner is a devout Buddhist and SCAA has only euthanized those animals too sick to save, with his permission (approximately 5 cats and two dogs in total euthanized over 17 months). There have been other animals that have died or we have euthanized once in foster care because they were dying and it was the humane thing to do. We decided not to vaccinate the vicious or paranoid cats we could not catch at Baoshan on the day we last vaccinated all the animals; these cats are not adoptable and were too vicious to even catch, thus our philosophy is that if they get sick, they will die a natural death—perhaps it is a form of natural euthanasia, but letting cats live out a miserable and fearful existence is also a form of cruelty, especially when there are so many healthy and loving animals that could be saved by this facility for future adoption. We have asked the Baoshan factory owner to visit any of our Adoption Days and he can see for himself how many of his animals we are trying to adopt out week after week.

They have stated that our founder might be selling the animals for cash or trying to make a profit out of Baoshan in some capacity:

Fact: As all of our members know, the founder and many of our volunteers are continually out of pocket using our own funds to support these animals we love. SCAA is absolutely a non-profit making venture and we depend on fundraising and donations to survive, which is why we ask for donations when an animal is adopted. Our accounting is absolutely transparent and is available for anyone to view, at any time. Incoming/ outgoing expenses, plus individual and PayPal donations are outlined in the monthly newsletter. Receipts, invoices, and bank notices of all donations are filed for anyone to see.

Thus, with a heavy heart, SCAA will write a detailed letter to the owner of the Baoshan facility ending our support. This will now make THEM responsible for food, litter, medical care, spaying and neutering. It also leaves them with no one to walk the dogs or give the cats tender loving care. They do know, however, the protocols that we have been trying to teach them for 17 months. It is now up to them to do what is best for the animals. It is heart-wrenching for us to leave a few of the animals we have come to love behind, but even many of these are not easily adoptable. We simply have to know that SCAA has accomplished an amazing feat there and it is time to move on. Unless severe actions are taken, Baoshan is simply to become yet another hoarder in Shanghai; hundreds of animals cramped in a tiny space, with health care issues that become so untenable that the only solution is to euthanize an entire population. This is exactly the opposite of what we were trying to accomplish there and we hope that the Baoshan owner will realize this and take action to circumvent these tragic problems. We wish Baoshan well and hope that they will decide to follow the crucial standards we set out for them on their own, thereby creating a healthy environment for an enforced limited number of animals, using proper western medical care. We also hope they then find their own way to adopt out these animals to responsible and loving homes.

We will continue to search for another project, but in the meantime we will be concentrating on our Foster Care program, with which we are already overwhelmed. In this way, we can continue to provide food and medical care to abandoned and abused animals, just not through Baoshan.

We are always getting requests from expats leaving Shanghai for help in finding homes for their animals, especially those returning to Singapore, the U.K. as their quarantine period is six months. So this will always keep us busy and if the animals can’t find a home via our website then we will do our best to find foster homes for them just prior to the family leaving.

We will keep you informed. But please, do not abandon SCAA. We always have animals we can help. We will need dependable Foster Parents more than ever before and we will continue with our Adoption Days. And as the weather gets cooler, we are planning an Adoption Day at the Moon River Diner in Pudong giving us three opportunities per month to find homes for the animals. (We also need to find an adoption day at one of the expat villa communities where we can reach a large audience of families potentially wanting to adopt.) Another area where we need volunteers is at bazaars, fund raisers, school events and anything where SCAA can have a booth to sell our calendars, T-shirts and provide people with information about us.

Please bear with us. This is a difficult and sad time for all of us but it was necessary that we stand our ground and not give in to pressure.

With warmest regards,
Carol Wolfson, Founder and Executive Director
Cat Brandell, Director
Lee-Anne Armstrong, Foster Care Director
Jaycee Koo, Dog Foster Care Director