Marc Ching, The Yulin Dog Meat Festival Con Artist
By Dominick Mezzapesa
Wildlife Planet
Just a few days before the Yulin Dog and Cat meat-eating festival was to kick off, Hollywood stars Matt Damon, Joaquin Phoenix, and Minnie Driver filmed an emotionally charged, heartfelt appeal to help stop China’s brutal dog meat festival.
The response from their public service announcement was nothing short of inspirational.
Millions of animal lovers from The United States, Britain and everywhere else on this planet, rallied to their appeal.
Marc Ching – who orchestrated the celebrity appeal, dreamed of staging a daring bid to shut down six Yulin slaughterhouses. His plan included the rescue of 1,000 dogs from becoming Chinese food.
Volunteers from the UK and the US flew to China to meet and help the charismatic, over-the-top animal crusader. Animal lovers across every social media platform promised to do their part as well. Many of these animal lovers promised to help find forever homes for these pets that had already been stolen from a loving family.
But a Mail on Sunday investigation has found that – unknown to his Hollywood backers, donors – and the millions who donated their time and effort, Ching's high-profile operation was nothing more than a farce.
Marc Ching fantasized about a grand rescue, but he quickly discovered he was way over his head. The payment for Ching's dream of becoming a celebrity was paid by the hundreds of dogs who suffered a slow, excruciatingly painful death.
The 'Mail on Sunday' investigation showed
After Ching "Rescued" them, many of the dogs died after being locked in cages and denied basic treatment and injections that might have saved them.
Ching facing failure and the realization that he was nothing more than a La La land loser, with balls the size of a steroid junkie, bailed out on the situation and cried he was suffering from depression.
Questions have been raised over the authenticity of Ching's shock value videos of dogs being tortured, burned and boiled alive in Chings effort to recruit Hollywood stars and public donations.
Brave Volunteers who, unlike spineless jellyfish Ching stayed to the bitter end and some are still there caring for the remaining few who by their own actions showed that they have more guts, strength, and determination than Ching could ever dream of.
Up to two-thirds of the dogs are now believed to have died. A respected animal activist in the world commented: "Those poor dogs just went from one hell to another."
Ching vowed that his mission would be a "historic".
Before leaving for Yulin Marc Ching swore he was going to close down six slaughterhouses. What he failed to tell donors was he would be paying slaughterhouse owners to close their shops for a few hours with their money. Our investigation proved that he closed only one warehouse, and that warehouse was "closed down" for only a few hours.
On June 21st Marc Ching paid one slaughterhouse an unreported amount of money. Our source claimed the price he paid was close to $15,000. But we have yet to verify this claim. When the slaughterhouse shuttered its doors, Ching and his volunteers immediately went to work. Spending most of the day inside the facility, they removed close to 100 dogs.
Early the next morning as these dogs were being transported to the relative safety of a temporary shelter in the city of Nanning. Marc Ching and his band of volunteers made a 2 a.m. pit stop at an undisclosed location.
When the volunteers stepped out of the trucks a few hours after leaving Yulin on their 130 miles trip to Nanning, they found themselves in a large empty field. They had no idea where they were and the only structure visible was a barn.
Inside the barn, the volunteers found hundreds of cages. They witnessed thousands of dogs crammed inside small metal cages. What they surmised was, this was an illegal trading site for China's many dog-meat slaughterhouses.
They witnessed Marc Ching buying 700 dogs. After Marc Ching came out of the barn, he ordered the volunteers to only grab cages that contained small dogs. The volunteers went to work helping load cages that contained anywhere from 5-10 dogs per crate onto a flatbed truck.
They would find out later that these 700 dogs were shipped off to a Buddhist sanctuary that Ching, the night before had struck a deal with.
Within days, most of these volunteers discovered the Monks were clueless on how to treat these oft-injured animals. Disease and distemper ran rampant, killing dogs by the dozens, according to secretly recorded voicemails from AHWF's Executive Director.
The Monks stood by and watched as the dogs suffered in cages far too small. They were also denied the most basic medical treatment. Buddhist religion dictates that no medicine shall be given to the sick. According to their religious beliefs, when it came to the sick dogs, they believed in letting nature take its course.
Marc Ching when confronted claimed ignorance about the Buddhist beliefs. But one must question when making the deal with the Monks, did he simply ask "Can I pay you to take these 700 Yulin dogs off my hands?" When they agreed on a price did Marc Ching just walk away?
Did Marc Ching even ask the most basic questions when setting this deal up?
By all accounts it seems, Marc Ching just handed over the 700 dogs, no questions asked. Marc Ching claims he was ignorant of the Buddhist religion. Fair enough. But even an ignorant person would ask some basic questions.
Do you have a vet? or shall I make arrangements?
I will bring you worm and flea medication because Lord knows my 5 cats get worms and fleas and they don't even step outside. So I cannot imagine how bad off these poor things are?
Do you know how to bandage cuts? Administer antibiotics? Administer worm medication?
Do you know how to do a flea dip?
Shall I send you some volunteers who have had some experience with dogs?
Asking just ONE of these questions, even Marc Ching would have known the level of care these Monks would have provided these sick and injured Yulin dogs.
Marc Chin Ran Off At The First Sign of Trouble
Wildlife Planet was able to obtain a copy of his airline ticket. Marc Ching's round-trip tickets called for him to arrive in China on June 19 and depart on June 25th. Marc Ching denied he left Yulin early, but having already set a departure date weeks before, his denial was proof that he lied.
According to multiple sources, Marc Ching told his volunteers that he was flying back home due to previous engagements. Once the Mail online article was published that excuse was quickly changed. Marc Ching was now claimed 'Stress' as the reason for his quick exit.
After Ching flew back to the USA, he realized that everything had quickly fallen apart in Yulin and he went into hiding. With Marc Ching AWOL Jeffrey Beri, at the behest of Valarie Ianniello, the Executive Director Of Marc Ching's Animal Hope And Wellness Foundation flew to Yulin in an attempt to save the quickly deteriorating situation.
With his reputation quickly spiraling downward, Marc Ching Marc Ching spent the next few weeks praising Jeffrey Beri. For the first few weeks, Ching made it seem as if Beri was part of the plan all along. But later when over $100,000 in donated money went missing from AHWF, he needed to reverse course, stagging a falling out with Beri.
In an attempt to save as many dogs as possible Beri needed to overpay for medical treatments and supplies. If he had done advance planning for his Yulin rescue mission, Ching could have easily negotiated a lower price for doctors and medical supplies weeks lower cost by pre-ordering needed medical supplies months before Yulin.
Once the money paid exceeded the positive press Marc Ching had prearranged, he cut off all the funding that was being spent on rescuing the dogs.
In the article Ching, with no proof, accused Beri of misusing funds and sexually harassing staff. Ching eventually filed a lawsuit against Beri, but while the case is still being dragged out, a judge had already ruled that there were no misappropriations of funding.
Beri, who denies the allegations, said he has since spent £50,000 of his own money. Unlike Marc Ching who left after 4-1/2 days, Beri stayed in China to care for the surviving dogs and find them homes overseas.
Where are the Dogs?
To date, there has been no explanation as to where these 1,000 dogs are. In fact, the numbers Marc Ching and Animal Hope and Wellness have previously put out, does not even add up to 1,000. AHWF has only shown a few dozen dogs being brought to the United States and Canada.
The Soi Dog Foundation, run by Briton John Dalley, paid for 70 dogs in Nanning to be sent to foster homes overseas at a cost of around £1,500 per dog.
The Humane Society International had taken in 120 dogs. In a Facebook post, they showed these dogs arriving in Canada. Animal Hope and Wellness incredulously tried to take credit for the HSI operation.
Sarah
The real condemnation of Ching comes from a woman named Sarah. She along with other volunteers they was ordered by Ching to leave some of 100 rescued dogs in their cages in Nanning. According to eyewitness testimony, the dogs were forced to stay in their Yulin cages in 100-degree heat, for most of that first day. Marc Ching ordered this so he could be photographed with animals that were clearly in distress.
Having arrived in the early morning hours, some of the rescue dogs stayed locked in their cages for almost 9 hours. At around 4 pm Marc Ching arrived with a small group of reporters and photographers in tow.
When his rescue started heading south like a duck in winter, Ching ordered Sarah and other volunteers to leave China on June 23. Sarah refused to do as Ching ordered and as a volunteer, she decided to stay on to care for these desperately ill dogs.
Sarah told Wildlife Planet: "Marc wanted everyone out so the dogs could disappear and die. He said most of the dogs were so sick they would die anyway".
She added "I was led to believe we were going to rescue the dogs and give them proper medical care. I didn't know we were going there to pull them out of the slaughterhouse, and then dump them on the Monks, just to die."
In a telephone interview from California, Ching admitted making mistakes with his Yulin rescue. But he insisted in the interview, that he did not regret it. Telling the interviewer "All of those dogs were supposed to die anyway"
During our investigation, we have come to the conclusion that of the supposed 1,000 dogs that Marc Ching claimed he "Saved" in Yulin, only 300 had survived his rescue operation.