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Feature: China's animal welfare advocates' voice finally heard

BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- This 80-square-meter apartment in northwest Beijing looks like a small zoo with all its inhabitants: 43 cats, five dogs, three rabbits, three pigeons, a duck, an owl, and a monkey. But many of the animals are sick, injured or crippled.

Lu Di, the 79-year-old apartment owner, patiently cleans up the fur, feathers, and excrement that is splattered over the room.

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She gets up at 5 every morning to feed the animals, clean them, and take the sick ones to the veterinarian.

"It normally takes a whole day to finish my routine," says Lu, head of the China Small Animal Protection Association (CSAPA) and a renowned advocate for animal welfare.

The thin, hunched grey-haired lady was once a secretary to the late Chairman Mao Zedong on account of her expert knowledge of classical Chinese literature.

Born and raised in an intellectual family, Lu was 44 when in 1975, the 82-year-old Mao Zedong's eyesight began to fail due to cataracts. Mao loved to read, especially classical Chinese literature and history. But the cataracts obstructed his vision and prevented his enjoyment of reading.

Mao had a confidential secretary to read aloud Party documents, but that secretary found classical Chinese literature difficult to handle. Mao needed someone with a solid background in classical literature able to interact with him for this job.

A number of candidates were selected from Peking University's Chinese literature department. From that group, Mao picked Lu, a teacher in the department.

Mao had read a selection of classical Chinese writings entitled "Anthology of Past Dynasties", in which some of the articles were annotated by Lu. Impressed by Lu's talent, Mao remembered her name.

Lu's four-month experience reading aloud to Mao and discussing classical Chinese writings with him won her nationwide fame.

She describes herself in the past as an elegant woman, who "often sat in a clean office, drinking tea and reading books."

Although she wants to write about Mao and classic Chinese literature, caring for the animals leaves her little time and energy.

"She could have lived a comfortable life like other old people," says Zhong Liqin, a CSAPA staff member. "However, she has chosen a difficult one. "

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Lu says she developed her emotional bond with small animals when she was a little girl -- "I had ducks, cats, and dogs as pets at home."

As a middle-aged woman during the Cultural Revolution, she started saving injured animals.

"The political chaos left many families broken, and children's pets homeless or abused," she recalls. "I felt like I had to save them. All lives are equal, and we all live only once."

"I've seen too much cruelty to ignore the barbarian and uncivilized side of China. It became my mission to save abused animals and to awaken people's conscience so they treat animals properly."

In 1992, Lu launched CSAPA, an NGO dedicated to animal welfare and animal rescue. Now China's largest animal welfare group, CSAPA has an animal shelter in Beijing's northern Changping District with more than 1,000 animals, mostly dogs and cats, in residence.

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