Liaoning guide dog training center provides a vision of care

DALIAN－"There were around 50,000 applicants when our facility was first established in 2006. We got endless phone calls every day," Wang Jingyu, founder of a guide dog training center in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning province, recalls. "However, we only managed to train two that year."

Wang became director of the Laboratory Animal Center at Dalian Medical University in 2001, after completing his PhD in animal behavior at a Japanese university.

"I saw many athletes with guide dogs during the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games on TV. My great-grandmother also suffered from vision problems. Therefore, I've paid close attention to the group for a long time and decided to start training guide dogs myself," Wang says, speaking about his initial motivation.

Starting from scratch, at the beginning, Wang had to conduct research and consult experts, as there was limited infrastructure in China. His facility became one of the first professional guide dog training centers in China, providing breeding, training and guidance.

It has taken 14 years of development, but Wang's center continues to make progress. Last year, his center trained over 30 dogs, and the success rate among the trained dogs has increased from 20 percent in the early days to 50 percent now. The center has delivered more than 200 certified dogs, for free, according to Wang.

However, there have been many difficulties that needed to be overcome. Wang Lin, a trainer at the center, points out that there's been a shortage of skillful trainers.

"Very few trainers can stick with it due to the overwhelming workload and low pay," Wang Lin says. "Each trainer has to train at least six dogs every day, as well as clean the kennels and feed the animals."

The cost of training a single guide dog ranges from 150,000 yuan ($21,069) to 200,000 yuan, according to Wang Jingyu, which includes training, dog food and vaccines－the trainers' salaries account for about 70 percent of the total cost.

The nonprofit struggles with inadequate income to support all this.

Although the situation has improved since the municipal government started to offer a subsidy of 60,000 yuan for each qualified guide dog from the center in 2010, Wang Jingyu had to sell his apartment to maintain the operation of the center during the hard times.

"Some people suggested I should sell the guide dogs, but I refused," Wang Jingyu explains. "It should be a thing to offer a glimmer of hope to visually impaired people, since most of those families have already borne great economic burdens."

There are about 300,000 visually impaired people in Liaoning province, and a total of about 16 million nationwide. Given these considerable numbers, Wang Jingyu appealed to the local government and society to devise more supportive policies and raise more funds for the guide dogs' cause.

"People with visual impairments deserve wonderful lives. With the help of guide dogs, they can create more social value. Our guide dog trainers share a common mission to bring them another pair of eyes, and I believe China's guide dogs' cause has a better future," he says.