These Elderly Chinese Women Run the Largest Dog Shelter You’ve Never Heard of (PHOTOS)

The Chinese New Year is a day spent with family and friends. Five amazing women decided, instead, to spend the holiday with their family of 1,300 dogs, like they have every day for the past five years.

In 2009, Wang Yanfang established a shelter for stray dogs and has spent every day since caring for these, otherwise unwanted, animals. After seeing numerous dogs being taken to pounds in Weinan, Shaanxi Province, China, she decided she wanted to do something about it.

Around the time Wang opened the shelter, China introduced a “one dog rule.” This rule only permits families to keep one small dog and they must have the proper documentation to do so. As a result of this rule, the influx of animals to the shelter grew drastically.

As numbers continued to increase at her donation-run shelter, Wang enlisted the help of four other volunteers, all women in their 60s and 70s. These amazing women have been voluntarily taking care of the dogs every day, getting up at 4am to prepare the 400 kilograms of dog food needed to feed such a large pack of animals. They also spend time with the dogs and groom them whenever possible.

Caring for so many animals is not without its risks though. Wang and her volunteers have all been bitten by some of the less-friendly residents. But Wang and her loyal group of volunteers feel that their work is worth it. They are all animal lovers and are happy to save these dogs from a much worse fate. For example, in a city nearby authorities euthanized about 37,000 dogs after a rabies outbreak. Wang’s pups are all safe from that kind of cruelty.

“They’re like your children, you can’t bear to be apart from them, or to lose them,” Wang said to Tencent News.

These women are truly heroes for the dogs in their care. We can’t thank them enough for the amazing work they are doing each day.

Each morning, the five amazing volunteers get up at 4 am.

They prepare the 400 kilograms of food for their giant pack.

Then they clean up and groom as many pups as possible.

Though many of the animals are sweet and loving …

… some of the dogs are less friendly, and all of the volunteers have been bitten at some point.

But these amazing women are true heroes for the dogs.

They know the risks but are more than happy to save so many lives.

There is no denying that these women are true animal lovers. Thank you for all your time and commitment to these needy dogs!

All image source: CCTVNews/Facebook