Prof Lu Di

I interviewed Prof Lu Di (芦荻) in Beijing in 2003, and found her unforgettable.

Unforgettable because of her extreme generosity and kindness in taking in and sheltering abandoned pets in her two-bedroom apartment. Unforgettable because of the sheer numbers of cats and dogs she had sheltered that year, given the outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), where countless pet were abandoned by their owners.

Unforgettable because of her determined yet persistent uphill battle in protecting every single feline and canine that she either found or was abandoned at her doorstep. And unforgettable because of the massive stench in her house where the pets were sheltered.

All I knew then was that Lu was a professor in Renmin University (人民大学), as well as the founder of China's Small Animals Protection Association (小动物保护协会). Because of her mission, she had aged considerably beyond her 70 years.

But I found out more about Lu after stumbling upon an article by Liu Hongyan (刘鸿雁, 一个没有讲完的故事, in 空谈, 中国广播电视出版社, 2000) where Lu was described as "a tragic character."

Lu lost her father when she was 3 and was raised by her mother. She had an unhappy marriage - due partly to Cultural Revolution tensions, and partly to her habit of sheltering cats and dogs. Lu apparently entered Zhongnanhai (中南海, the Chinese leadership compound), where she reportedly "read to Mao", presumably because Mao was ill at that time and had blurred vision. But Mao died less than a year after Lu entered Zhongnanhai. Immediately after Mao's death, Lu came under attack for having purported links to the Gang of Four (四人帮).

As Liu wrote: "In reality, Lu had never even met any one within the Gang of Four. During her days of being attacked, her husband stayed even further away from her. And when everything was over, Lu could have lived peacefully with her daughter in the United States. But by then, she had decided to devote her life to animal protection. This led to the start of the toughest and most difficult period in her life."

Apart from normal healthy abandoned pets, Lu also took in handicapped animals, such as those whose eyes had been gorged out, or those whose legs had been chopped off. Apart from having animals being left at her doorstep, Lu was also the target of those with less-than-charitable motives. An owner of a pet shop once visited Lu and expressed his interest in donating some pet food to Lu. When Lu expressed her gratitude and asked if there was anything she could do in return, the manager said he would like to obtain a particular animal sheltered by Lu. The animal was a rare breed, and the manager would like to cross-breed the animal with other pets, and then sell them for a profit. Lu turned down the manager's offer. This naturally also meant that the promise of free pet food never materialized.

Lu noted that her most urgent task was not only to ensure that the abandoned animals were fed, but also to change people's perceptions about pets - a task which she described as monumentally more difficult.

Liu ended her article by saying: "Many people often asked me, "there are now so many Chinese who are unemployed, and humans don't even have enough to eat, why bother about pets?" I do not know how to answer them. But I believe that Teacher Lu's job is extremely meaningful."

I agree with Liu. And I certainly hope Lu and other animal-lovers in China had made a lot more headway in their mission since I last saw her/them.