Yulin, a city in southern China, celebrates the summer solstice by throwing a festival that involves the slaughter and consumption of as many as 10,000 dogs. Not everyone in China supports such practices, however; 65-year-old Yang Xiaoyun, a retired teacher who runs an animal shelter in Tianjin, traveled more than 2,400 km (1,500 miles) and spent more than 7,000 yuan ($1,100 or €990) to save 100 dogs from certain death.

Space shuttle Atlantis launches from pad 39A on July 8, 2011 at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch of Atlantis, STS-135, is the final flight of the shuttle program, a 12-day mission to the International Space Station. (Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)

An agent of the OIPR, one of the government agencies charged with managing protected land, stands next to cocoa trees inside Mont Peko National Park in Duekoue department, western Ivory Coast August 18, 2015. (Photo by Luc Gnago/Reuters)

A People's Liberation Army (PLA) commando jumps through a fire hoop part of an exercise during an open day event at the Ngong Shuen Chau Barracks, the PLA navy base in the territory, in Hong Kong, China, 01 July 2015. Thousands of visitors attended the PLA open day yesterday and today to mark the 16th anniversary of the handover from British rule. (Photo by Jerome Favre/EPA)

A Mai-Mai rebel soldier shows off his guns at a checkpoint near the Mugunga refugee camp in Zaire; 1996. (Photo by Carol Guzy/The Washington Post)

An engineer begins the process of conducting a block-by-block inspection of the exterior of the Washington Monument while suspended by ropes September 27, 2011 in Washington, DC. The National Park Service has closed the landmark in the nation's capital indefinitely due to damage caused by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in August. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Tibetan monks create an intricate picture made from coloured sand at St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art on November 23, 2011 in Glasgow, Scotland. The monks, from the Panchen Lama's Monastery, are creating a Sand Mandala as part of a Tantric Buddhist ritual, invoking the presence of the Buddha in a design representing the palace of the deities. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

The Brooklyn Bridge is seen after a crane pulled by a tug boat on the East River slammed into scaffolding beneath the Bridge on March 13, 2012 in New York, NY. According to reports, no damage was done to the structure of the bridge. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)