Dog waiting to be butchered in China extends paw to passer-by and is saved

A stolen pet that was in line to be executed and sold on as meat in a Chinese wet market was saved after this simple, adorable act.

A small dog behaved adorably at just the right moment and saved herself from being butchered and sold on as meat in a Chinese wet market.

The stolen pet was spotted by a sympathetic passer-by outside a meat shop in China’s Jilin Province in October. The dog held out her paw to the passer-by as they walked past her.

The act melted their heart and they soon bought her off the butcher and adopted her as their own pet.

The heartwarming moment when she reached a desperate paw out to her human saviour was captured on camera.

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This dog reached out her hand to a human walking past, as if imploring them to help.

In the video, the dirty and sad-looking white dog, believed to be an American Eskimo breed, is chained to a fence beside the store.

However, seeing a potential ally, she reached out her paw in a human-like way, as if asking for help.

The video was posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of Tiktok, and went viral.

The dog is now living with her loving owner and has been named Yuan Yuan.

Her owner used the internet notoriety as a chance to call for stricter laws to protect animals.

“See how scared it was while waiting to be butchered at the dog meat store, and how hopeful it looked (while waiting for a human to save it),” posted the owner, Danbao, to social media.

Yuan Yuan is now leading a happy life.

Animal welfare experts suspect Yuan Yuan is a stolen pet, which is how she ended up in line to be sold as dog meat.

Wendy Higgins from animal welfare group Humane Society International told The Daily Mail: “The dog in the video responded to human kindness by offering a paw, a sure sign that this dog was almost certainly a former pet, likely stolen for the meat trade.”

Ms Higgins also used the video as an opportunity to criticise China’s policy towards animals, emphasising that now is the time to act.

According to her, the country must introduce laws to protect dogs and cats from ending up in the meat industry altogether, as “That is the only way to stop them suffering.”

The dog’s owner posted a follow-up video of Yuan Yuan, to show she is alive and well.

The video is timely. Earlier this year, Chinese wet markets and the live animal trade were put into the spotlight following the spread of the COVID-19 virus, which originally started in animals.

It’s suspected the virus originated from a bat in the wet markets of Wuhan.

The allegation caused animal welfare advocates to call for an end to live animal meat markets

Dr Peter Li, China policy specialist for Humane Society International, said earlier this year that: “Momentum is building in China to tackle the dog and cat meat trades.”