The China Education Team was busy earlier this summer with a large-scale activity “Bikers Love Animals”, lasting from April to June and ending with an incredible 80 teams from across 20 cities joining the final event.
The aim of the event was for teams of cyclists to travel around their local cities, outlying areas and countryside gathering as many signatures as they could in support of animal welfare in China.
A total of 1,876 bikers joined the event and gathered 77,000 signatures!
The event was also a big internet hit and was re-tweeted and incredible 80,000 times on microblogs. Over 100,000 people were reached through this event with our “love animals” message.
Each biker team was composed of 10 — 20 members. They chose their own route and dates, spreading the message and collecting signatures. The cyclists came from all walks of life – “white-collar” workers, company bosses, students and farmers from the villages. Different background – same goal!
Lubiao Biker Club completed the longest trip in the activity, riding for 300km during their three and a half day trip from 29 April to 2 May. They went through 10 towns and nearly 100 villages and recorded their journey on the internet.
Summer can usually be divided into sunny days and rainy days in southern China with unexpected showers at any time and the Nanning Cat Team encountered just such a shower during their trip! The rain lasted for over one hour, leaving them cold and hungry – a feeling they said of experiencing life as a stray cat or dog.
Both Changsha Animals Protection Association and Shijiazhuang Yimi’ai Stray Cat Rescue Group had nine biker groups and 400 members, being the largest groups participating in the event.
Changsha Animals Protection Association set up their “Changsha Go Go” Team and separated into nine small groups, taking different routes while heading for the same home base at the end of their trip. Their event lasted for several days with various activities included – singing songs during cycling; having a small singing competition after arrival at each destination; having a flash mob holding “anti-cat and dog-eating” banners. They also held an essay contest in universities to support the event and vegetarian restaurants were invited to participate by spreading the “anti-cat and dog-eating” message.
A special team was formed by farmers from Shijiazhang, called Xinle Farmer Animal Protection Group – vegetable and livestock farmers from Caojiazhuang Village. They held up the banner and gained much support from other villagers.
There was a starting ceremony for four biker groups in Chengdu, mader up of riders from companies and our Dr Dog team. All four teams completed their task , riding in different directions across the city.
Guangzhou’s Aizhilv Team had the most detailed plan of their city, with two separate routes – one of 60km for professional bikers and the other of 20km for amateurs. Both teams and routes gained thousands of signatures from citizens on the way.
Changsha Animals Protection Association was awarded “The Most Creative Ideas Team” and the Guangzhou Aizhilv Team awarded “The Most Re-tweets Team”.
Huge thanks to all who participated in each city – thank you for a creative, fun event, thank you for your time and wonderful effort, and thank you for raising the profile of and gaining such tremendous support for animal welfare in China.
