“The moment the dog truck was forced to stop, the dogs seemed to know their plight was ending,” Peter J. Li, Ph.D., China policy specialist for HSI, told The Dodo. “At the animal hospital, the 20 dogs in the HSI-funded facility were extremely cooperative with the vets.”
Due to being forcefully crammed into the tiny cages, many of the dogs were suffering from wounds and broken bones. Some were riddled with flies and maggots — and others were diagnosed with distemper, a highly contagious virus that can cause widespread infection within groups of dogs.
Unfortunately, 13 of the over 200 dogs passed away shortly after rescue.