Zhi Xiang is a Buddhist monk in Shanghai who has spent most of his adult life rescuing abandoned animals. In June 2021, when Agence France-Presse profiled him in a report republished by ABC News in Australia, the 51-year-old had nearly 8,000 dogs in his care, along with cats, chickens, geese and even peacocks. He started in 1994 and receives no government funding.
His explanation for why he does it was short and blunt.
"I have to rescue them because if I don't, they will die for sure."
Here is what is known about his shelter, what it costs to run, why China has so many stray animals and what his work tells us about responsible pet ownership.
Who Zhi Xiang is
Zhi is the head monk of Bao'en Temple, which still functions as a place of worship. His rescue work began, according to the AFP report, when he started treating cats that had been hit by vehicles. Over almost three decades it grew into one of the largest private animal-rescue operations in China.
His day reportedly starts at 4 a.m. Several hundred animals live at the temple itself, including a room shared by about 200 cats. Most of the dogs kept at the temple are sick ones that need closer attention; the rest live at a large shelter elsewhere in Shanghai that he built with the help of supporters. He is not a trained vet, and he relies on a small paid staff and volunteers for daily care.
The scale and the cost
Feeding and housing thousands of animals is expensive. Zhi estimated his annual running costs at about 12 million yuan, which the ABC/AFP report converted to about US$2.45 million. On top of that, the shelter needed roughly 60 tonnes of dog food every month. (Some versions of this story online wrongly describe the 12 million yuan as a monthly figure; it was the yearly total.)
The money comes from donors. He has also borrowed from his own parents and from fellow monks to keep going, and in 2021 he said he could no longer borrow any more. Disease is a constant problem: he estimated that about 30 per cent of the dogs he rescues die of illness or are too sick to save, which is a sobering reminder of how many strays are in poor health by the time anyone helps them.
Why China has so many strays
When Zhi began in the mid-1990s, he says, stray dogs were relatively uncommon in Shanghai. As incomes rose, keeping pets became far more popular in Chinese cities, and with that came more abandoned animals. Chinese state media reported in 2019 that the country had around 50 million stray animals, and the number was said to be growing fast.
Zhi does not blame people who dislike dogs, or the government. He puts the problem down to owners he describes as "so-called dog lovers who don't have proper animal-caring knowledge": people who buy a puppy on impulse and abandon it when it becomes inconvenient, ill or old. Unneutered strays then breed rapidly, and the population multiplies.
The same pattern appears in many countries where pet ownership grows quickly. Animal-welfare organisations generally point to the same fixes: spaying and neutering, microchipping and registration, education before people take on an animal, and adoption from shelters instead of buying from breeders that churn out litters.
Finding new homes, including abroad
Many of Zhi's dogs will live out their lives with him, but rehoming is a big part of the work. English-speaking volunteers use social media to find adopters overseas. Since 2019, about 300 of his dogs had gone to families in the United States, Canada and European countries including Germany, and a few hundred more were expected to follow. The AFP report described him taking a dog to Shanghai's international airport to travel with a volunteer flying to Seattle.
International adoption is complicated. Each dog needs vaccinations, health checks, paperwork that meets the destination country's import rules and a flight volunteer or paid transport. It is slow and costly, which is why only a small share of his animals can go this way.
Zhi admits that saying goodbye is hard.
"I think they're very happy so I feel it's worthwhile. But of course I miss them."
He has said he dreams of one day travelling abroad to visit the dogs he rescued and photographing himself with each one, so that he will have those pictures to look back on when he is too old to walk.
Compassion as a daily routine
For Zhi, rescue is a Buddhist practice as much as a project. Compassion for all living beings is central to Buddhist teaching, and many Chinese temples have long traditions of caring for animals, including releasing captive creatures and feeding strays. His version is unusually large and practical: food orders by the tonne, medical care, cleaning, and a constant search for money and homes.
That practical side is the part most stories skip. Pulling an animal off the street is the start of a responsibility that can last ten years or more. A shelter has to keep going on quiet days as well as when it goes viral.
How to help animals like these
- Adopt, and commit for life. A dog can live 10 to 15 years. Before adopting, think about housing, money, time and what happens when you travel or move.
- Spay or neuter. It is the single most effective way to stop the stray population growing.
- Give to verified groups. Fundraising appeals that reuse viral photos are not always connected to the people in them. Donate through organisations you can check.
- Volunteer locally. Shelters everywhere need walkers, foster homes and help with transport.
The figures in this article describe Zhi's situation as reported in June 2021; the number of animals, costs and adoption totals will have changed since then. What has not changed is the lesson he offers: most strays exist because people gave up on them, and every owner who stays committed means one fewer animal needing rescue.
Sources: ABC News (AFP), 26 June 2021: Chinese monk rescues 8,000 dogs and finds them new homes.
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