'I rescued a cute puppy from being turned into dog meat in China – now she's a star'

When Julia de Cadenet first found Felicity in a slaughterhouse in China, she could not have predicted the Samoyed’s rise to international fame.

In 2018, Ms De Cadenet managed to enter, with the help of a local supporting her charity, a slaughterhouse where dogs and cats were being killed for the Chinese meat market and to negotiate the release of 17 pets.

Recalling the first time she saw Felicity, she told Express.co.uk: “When the boss [of the slaughterhouse] came in, she was hanging on a hook and he just cut her down, which is why she is missing her tail.”

Rescued from certain death, which Ms De Cadenet said would have likely happened by blowtorch, Felicity was taken to Hebei, northern China, where the charity founded by the activist, World Protection for Dogs and Cats in the Meat Trade, has a shelter counting more than 750 rescued pets.

The organisation then began the process of looking to rehome the Samoyed and the other dogs rescued that day.

Ms De Cadenet recalled: “I brought her to France. Initially, she did have a home, but sadly when the person found out that she was missing her tail, she didn’t want her anymore.

“And this is what I have often found with adoptions of rescues, there are two types of people: There are the kind of people who say, ‘I’ll have any dog, I just want to give them a home and love’, and they do, and then there are other people who really want a breed dog and they want a perfect dog. Our dogs are not perfect, they are often missing limbs, eyes, tails, you know, they may not be perfect, and so they get rejected.”

After the rejection, Ms De Cadenet took Felicity into her house, for what she thought would be just a temporary solution. She said: “She ended up with me and I used to say to her because she’s very bossy, ‘You are not going to stay here, I’m going to find you a home’.”

However, the compassionate and loyal behaviour Felicity showed to the Samoyed Ms De Cadenet had previously adopted, Anastasia, when she got sick with cancer and eventually died moved the charity founder to the point that she could simply no longer let go of her.

The “outgoing” and friendly personality of Felicity turned her into the mascot of the World Protection for Dogs and Cats in the Meat Trade organisation. The organisation was launched four years after Ms De Cadenet started the online initiative No To Dog Meat, her response to witnessing the horrors of the dog meat trade for the first time in 2009, and while based in London has branches and carries out activities in different countries.

The friendly pet has even had the chance to share the stage with A-listers as, thanks to Ms De Cadenet’s background in film production, she has accompanied twice the charity founder on the red carpet of the star-studded Cannes Film Festival.

Not unlike the more famous film stars in attendance, the adorable dog caught the attention of photographers and the media during both her appearances. While in 2023 she donned a red gown, this year Felicity appeared on the red carpet in a yellow dress while on her way to the screening of Girl with a Needle.

Speaking about Felicity’s role as a “campaign dog”, Ms De Cadenet said, “She loves to meet people, she’s meeting and greeting everyone”.

Recalling their time at Cannes, the charity founder added: “It’s a bit of light-heartedness and great publicity for what we are doing, whereas normally we are walking among hell and suffering.”

The dog meat market is most widespread in South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and China – with the latter country being home to the world’s largest trade.

Accurate figures are difficult to gauge, as this trade falls within a “grey area” in China where it’s neither regulated nor banned, but Ms De Cadenet believes it involves the killing of some 10 million dogs each year. The infamous Yulin Dog Meat Festival – which has been taking place every year since 2009 for about 10 days during the summer solstice – saw an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 dogs slaughtered in 2024 alone, the charity founder believes.

She added: “In the slaughterhouse where Felicity came from, they can slaughter around 500 a day.”

The unregulated nature of the dog meat market in China, Ms De Cadenet said, makes it possible for people to “round up dogs” and sell them to traders. Many of the dogs that end up in markets and restaurants aren’t bred for the meat market but, rather, can be stolen pets, strays or abandoned animals, Ms De Cadenet explained.

The No To Dog Meat founder explained that one of the reasons why it is difficult to end this trade is that it allows people on lower incomes to make extra money. She said: “They are struggling to survive, so if they can grab a few dogs and sell them on to somebody else higher up the chain… I mean, we caught a guy just around the corner from our shelter and he had grabbed some dogs in terrible condition, and he could have sold each of them for the equivalent of £12, and that would have been very good money for him.

“So you have people on the very base level who are acting because they’re in poverty. And then you get people very quickly up the chain who are doing this because they can make a very good income because once the dogs are stolen and acquired, they can all be stocked in warehouses until they can be loaded onto the big trucks and sent to the slaughterhouses.”

Once a pet reaches the Yulin market, the charity founder said, it could be worth the equivalent of £200.

Ms De Cadenet’s charity, which holds United Nations Special Consultative status, works to save dogs and cats from the trade and rehome them, but also carries out campaigns to raise awareness in China of the meat market.

Its founder believes change can happen, although she acknowledges ending the trade in the country will be a “very long, slow process” due to the unregulated nature of the dog meat market there and how proficuous it can be for individuals.

She said: “Will it end anytime soon? No. Does that mean we should stop? No. Are we making progress? Well, I think we are. More and more we are running events locally in China, we recently had a big event in Beijing, and the more young people we get involved in the countries concerned, the more we can spread the word, and the more change will come organically. All you need is for a group of people to think that something is no longer in vogue.”

Dog meat appears to have gone out of fashion in South Korea, where a Gallup poll carried out last year reported only 8 percent of people saying they had tried dog meat over the previous 12 months, down from 27 percent in 2015. Fewer than a fifth of those polled said they supported the consumption of the meat. Dog meat stew considered a delicacy among some older South Koreans, is no longer believed to be popular with young people.

This lack of interest in the trade, paired with growing popularity of house pets, has led the country’s MPs to back a new law in January that will make the slaughter and sale of the meat of dogs illegal from 2027.