A group of seven dogs that went missing in China have gone viral after a video emerged of them walking back to their village, reuniting with owners who had been searching for days. The video, first posted online on 15 March, shows the dogs – including a golden retriever, Labrador, German shepherd and Pekinese – walking along a highway in Changchun, capital of Jilin province, where temperatures drop below 0C overnight.
Leading the pack is a corgi, later identified in Chinese media as Dapang, or 'big fatty'. The video reportedly clocked up more than 230 million views. One volunteer for a local stray dog rescue centre called Tong Tong said she went door-knocking and posted missing dog flyers after seeing the video, concerned for their welfare in the sub-zero temperatures.
On 19 March, it was reported that the dogs had found their way home. Three of the dogs, including Dapang, belong to a woman who lives in a village near Changchun. She told Chinese media she had been looking for her dogs for four days, and was on the point of giving up, when Dapang wandered into the house on 18 March. The owner then searched nearby villages and found the other dogs, who had been taken in by another villager.
It is not clear why the dogs went missing, but some netizens raised concerns they could have been kidnapped for dog meat, still eaten in some parts of China. However, on 21 March, Jilin’s provincial culture and tourism bureau said the dogs had wandered off of their own accord, attracted by the German shepherd who was on heat and has been known to disappear for a few days at a time. State media warned the incident 'reflects the shortcomings of online information dissemination – a mixture of true and false information'.
Some netizens joked the dogs’ adventure could be turned into a film, or a real-life version of Paw Patrol. 'Watching this made me want to cry. Dogs are humans’ friends forever,' wrote one Weibo user.
