Revealed, the hero of the Chinese dog meat festival

It has just stopped raining, and the scent that wafts up on the approach to the corrugated iron door on the city's northeast edge is a pungent mix of stale excrement and wet canine.

Peering through a gap in the door it is clear that none of the 200 or so pooches in the grubby courtyard beyond would have much of a chance of winning Crufts. 

One skinny, lumpy mutt is bald aside from white patches of fur on its feet and face. Another has dense, matted fur and yellow teeth the colour of a pub ceiling jutting from its mouth like a broken fence.

Then Yang Xiaoyun, the 66-year-old owner of the shelter, steps inside with a bag of chicken wings. 

Tails start to wag and the dogs flock towards her as she spent the next half-hour ripping up the wings by hand, ensuring that each canine has had a fair share. 

There are also bowls of dried food and water that are constantly available.

'They're my babies', says Mrs Yang as an enormous Labrador rears up on its hind legs and whines for more.

If it wasn't for Mrs Yang, every dog in this yard would have been eaten by humans at last month's so-called dog meat festival in Yulin - 1,500 miles south-west of Tianjin. 

It is tradition for up to 10,000 dogs - plus scores of cats - to be slaughtered for the pot at the annual event, which marks summer solstice. 

It sparked outrage around the world.

(dailymail.co.uk)