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.

A dog surfs at the 6th Annual Surf City surf dog contest in Huntington Beach, California September 28, 2014. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Rumor, a German shepherd and winner of Best In Show at the 141st Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, is fed steak at Sardi's in New York, U.S., February 15, 2017. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Brides-to-be participate in the “Running of the Brides” race in a park in Bangkok, Thailand March 25, 2017. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish bride takes part in the “mitzva tantz”, the custom in which relatives dance in front of the bride after her wedding ceremony, in Netanya, Israel, early March 16, 2016. (Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters)

Brides display their hands decorated with henna around a bride as she poses for her own photographer during a mass marriage ceremony in which, according to its organizers, 70 Muslim couples took their wedding vows, in Ahmedabad, India, February 11, 2018. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

The bride in her room, prepared for a traditional Chechen wedding ceremony in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia on November 24, 2016. (Photo by Valery Sharifulin/TASS)

German Yesakov, 25, a cameraman from Russia, dressed as movie character Captain Jack Sparrow, and his bride Anastasiya pose with a sailing ship decoration during their wedding ceremony in the southern city of Stavropol, Russia, February 5, 2016. Yesakov dressed as the Pirates of the Caribbean character and picked the film for the theme of his wedding as a surprise to his 17-year-old bride Anastasiya. (Photo by Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters)