Caolan Maguidhir, founder of the Facebook page ‘Pets Lost And Found Fermanagh,’ is preparing to travel across the world to rescue dogs from China’s meat trade early next year.

As part of a team of five people, Caolan (26) from Enniskillen, will travel to China at the end of January to help rehabilitate dogs in rescue centres that have been saved from a horrific fate.

Caolan explained: “We'll be flying into Harbin, China for a two week trip staying in the city and going between their rescue shelters, quarantine centres and veterinary clinics every day. Their dogs need cleaned, fed and played with each time. We could also be called out on rescue calls if a meat truck is stopped.”

On return, the team members will fly into Paris with four dogs each. These dogs will then be brought to their prearranged homes across the UK.

It is estimated that in China alone 10 million dogs are slaughtered annually for the meat trade.

“We hope this trip raises awareness of the brutal way that dogs are treated and the pain and suffering that they go through when squeezed tightly into cages with lots of other dogs, the majority stolen family pets,” said Caolan. “Quite often they end up with broken bones before they reach the meat markets where their ordeal continues,” he added.

Caolan was invited on the rescue mission by David Foster (38) from Co. Antrim, who runs the Facebook ‘Play for Strays,’ after they struck up a friendship over the social media site.

Opening up about what the trip means to him personally, Caolan said: “This trip means so much to me as even going back to when I was a child growing up in Cavanaleck there wasn't a lot of people I could call friends but at the same time I knew every dog in the neighbourhood by name. Back then a lot of people in the estate would have let their dogs roam so I was always known for having all the neighbours’ dogs follow me around. Even then, if anyone's dog went missing they would come and ask me, as it was pretty likely I had seen them at some point. I always knew I would end up working with animals.”

Two years ago, Caolan set up ‘Pets Lost And Found Fermanagh’ when he noticed the need for a Facebook page dedicated solely to missing pets.

He said: “The page soon grew from that to a massive community of animal lovers with lots of different related content posted daily and people coming together to share their love of pets and to help those in need. This trip would be the culmination of the many years I've spent befriending animals.”

As the trip is self funded, Caolan has set up a GoFundMe page to help cover his expenses and he also plans to hold some fundraising events.

On a final note, Caolan commented on the importance of the trip. He said: “I feel it's important to help these dogs as over in Western countries we are blessed to have many rescue centres and charitable animal organisations that care for our animals.”

“We need to give a voice to and stand up for those animals who have nobody to fight for them. I expect it to be a very difficult and emotional journey, but I'm keeping the end result in sight,” he added.