29-year-old Wang Yan, from Gelong town in Jilin province, once had a net worth of several million yuan. But he has since given it all away, in a journey that started one day in 2012 when his beloved pet pooch went missing.
"I went looking everywhere, but all to no avail," he remembers. "Finally someone let me go into the slaughterhouse to try my luck there."
According to Sina News, Wang hung around the slaughterhouse for a week, but was unable to find his lost dog. Instead, he found scenes of bloody slaughter that he was unable to shake from his mind. After that experience, Wang used his fortune to buy the slaughterhouse and establish an animal shelter inside an abandoned steel factory. Over time, he gradually built up the shelter, finding more and more homes for strays.
"Right now, we only have 215 dogs," he said. "The most we've had at one time is 1,000, many of them have been adopted."
Wang has gone into serious debt providing supplies to keep the shelter going, and he says he is worried about the winter to come.
"I do not accept monetary donations," he explained. "I only hope that kind-hearted people will be able to donate a few supplies to help build a home from these 200 dogs."
Stray dogs are often a big problem in smaller Chinese cities. Earlier this year, the local government of a district in Shandong province made headlines around China by issuing a pet ban that threatened to kill all dogs, even if the animals were licensed. One city in Yunnan slaughtered 5,000 dogs following a rabies outbreak that killed 5 people. Even if dogs are saved from the slaughterhouse, it still doesn't come close to guaranteeing their survival.
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