This heart-breaking footage shows a woman pulling stray puppies out of their flooded shelter as dozens of them became trapped by the rising waters and others got swept away amid the violent storm.
The woman, named Ms Yao in local media, shared footage showing the devastated state of the shelter in Fuzhou, in south-eastern China’s Fujian Province after the area got struck by a typhoon on 6th September.
Ms Yao, who has been taking care of sick and stray dogs for the past four years, said she made sure to place the 66 pups in her shelter on higher ground.
But she did not expect that continuous heavy rain throughout the night would bring about severe flooding.
The next morning, on 7th September, Yao checked the shelter and was horrified to find it was filled with water nearly five feet above the ground.
In phone footage, two puppies can be seen trying to stay on top of tall objects to avoid falling into the water and are heard squealing and barking as they find themselves trapped there.
Another one is seen crawling up a metal fence and wagging its tail at the sight of its saviour.
The woman quickly picks up the black, soaked pup and carries it in her arm while wading through the elbow-deep water towards another rescuer standing further out.
She hands him the animal and then goes back for another pup that is seen trying to swim towards her and she also carries it to safety before the video cuts.
Ms Yao shared the footage on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, with the caption: “The water hasn’t receded yet, and there are still several on top of the greenhouse. Dozens of the ones we rescued yesterday [Wed] have nowhere to stay. Two that were rescued still haven’t been found.”
Yao added she is deeply heartbroken and has been crying all morning.
The shelter’s dog food and medicines were also completely submerged, and she said four years of hard work were lost in an instant.
With the help of other rescuers, the dogs they saved were relocated to a safer spot.
