China is not a good place for man's best friend: in the Asian country, approximately 18 million dogs are slaughtered every year (a figure that is nonetheless negligible when compared to the 150 billion animals killed annually worldwide for food).

Dog meat is a traditional dish in Chinese culture; it is believed to improve male fertility and to ward off evil spirits and illness. Three years ago, Wang Yan, a steel entrepreneur, lost his own dog. He searched for the animal everywhere, until he tried the dog slaughterhouse in his city, Changchun, in north-eastern China.

There, Wang Yan did not find his companion — he found horror. Dogs beaten with clubs and dragged along the ground before having their throats slit with a cleaver; the animal does not always die immediately — sometimes it remains conscious as the blood pours out — after which the dog is skinned, boiled, cut into pieces and sold to be eaten.

Yan thus opened his eyes to the plight of dogs in China and took on an important mission: to save as many as possible from slaughter. In 2012, the man invested his entire fortune of several million yuan to purchase a disused slaughterhouse and convert it into a shelter for stray dogs, the "Changchun animal rescue base".

Since the shelter was established, Yan has managed to save more than two thousand animals that would otherwise have been slaughtered and sold at market. "Today there are 215 dogs at the shelter, most of them came from slaughterhouses, rescued by volunteers and brought here," Yan stated.

His love for animals has had a considerable economic impact on Yan's life, to the point where he has gone into debt to keep the shelter running and to buy food and medicine for his dogs. "I don't accept cash donations," he nonetheless clarified, "I rely on the generosity of people who wish to donate food and supplies for medical care."