Meet Vivi Zhou of Hope 4 Fur China Dog Rescue

Vivi Zhou has found her calling and it harkens back to her childhood. Zhou, who grew up in China, remembers the meat markets where dogs were sold for food. Today, Hope 4 Fur China Dog Rescue, rescues dogs from markets in China and prepares them for transportation to and adoption in the United States. Hope 4 Fur is a program sponsored by the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation.

“What people don’t understand is that many of these dogs who are in the meat market are not well,” explains Zhou, who was inspired to make a difference because of Mocha, her service dog. “Often they are dogs from a breeder that didn’t sell. They are often unhealthy and once we rescue them, they spend a month being made healthy. That is done at a local shelter in China.”

Zhou says Mocha has helped her through a difficult recovery from alcoholism. She spent two months in rehab and when she returned to Amagansett, Mocha helped her successfully continue her recovery.

“Mocha is like my child,” Zhou says.  She added that a difficult marriage and painful divorce forced her into trauma. “She has helped me stay sober for the past three years. For people with trauma, an animal can help. So, we rescue the dogs, but when they’re adopted and become a part of the family, they also often rescue [the family] in certain ways

“The economics in China are bad right now,” Zhou explains. “People aren’t buying dogs as pets like they used to, so the breeders are selling to the meat markets. What people don’t know is that these animals aren’t healthy. If people knew what they were eating … If we consider ten dogs, five or six of them are too sick to be considered for adoption.”

Zhou says they don’t leave the animals, they still rescue the sicker ones, but don’t put them through the adoption process. They allow them to be cared for in the shelter, enabling them to live out their lives in a better place.

“Seventy percent of the dogs we rescue survive,” Zhou says. “Our goal is to rescue the dogs and re-educate consumers away from eating dog. We’re also paying the breeders direct for the dogs. Some restaurants in poorer areas will buy them as a protein source. Sometimes, people don’t even know what they’re eating. Longterm, we’d like to completely close down the market for dogs. We believe if more people knew what is happening, there’d be more of an outcry.”

Zhou says they rescue on average about 20 dogs per month since they were started in September 2025. They are a program under the umbrella of the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation. While the brunt of their funding is through the foundation, they are hoping to increase awareness and bring in more funding and more volunteers. Currently, the dogs from China are taken to the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons in East Hampton, where they are kept, where the vet cares for them and where they are socialized and prepared for adoption.

“We know we can’t save them all,” Zhou says of their efforts in conjunction with ARF. “That is why it is a multi-pronged effort. If we can change people’s minds about dogs as a food source, that will help a lot.”

The dogs sell for around $2 per pound and usually cost between $20 and $30, Zhou explained.

“It takes about a thousand dollars to get them healthy in China,” Zhou says. “Then, it is about twenty-five hundred dollars to bring them to the United States. Our adoption fee is only around [$550, $350 goes to ARF], a lot lower than others. With other organizations, adoption is a business, a way to raise money. We don’t want to set barriers to the adoption process. One of our biggest expenses is the shipping fee.”

Zhou says they want to make the adoption process as pet owner friendly as possible. ARF houses and evaluates the dogs to make sure they’re healthy and properly socialized before making them available for adoption.

While many organizations focus on adoptable puppies, more of Hope4Fur’s adoptable dogs are adults because that is what is sold at the market.

“Among the things we need is vet service in China,” Zhou says. “We also need the temporary parents who travel with the dogs from China.”

Finding someone who can travel to China, sometimes for a multi-day trip can be difficult on short notice. She says the cost of the trip is covered by Hope4Fur. If you would like to be considered for the temporary parent status, contact them  at info@hope4fur.com or visit hope4fur.com. They also are looking for sponsors. While the Foundation is underwriting them, the additional sponsorship also means additional exposure.

“I think once people know who we are and what we do, additional sponsorships and volunteers will follow,” Zhou says. “Most of the people who adopt, end up adopting one or more additional dogs.”

Even Sabin has adopted a dog through the group. “When Andy was growing up, it was his mom who would bring home all sorts of stray animals,” Zhou said. “Andy’s mom is a huge animal lover.”

Despite his mom’s love of strays, Sabin had to be convinced to adopt from the shelter.

“He wanted a purebred and never would consider adopting from a shelter,” Zhou says. “Then, he fell in love with this St. Bernard. He is now a believer in adopting.”

Zhou says that her goal is to convince more people to consider shelter adoption as an option. In 2025, they transferred 24 dogs. In January, they will take delivery of 15 dogs. Zhou says the minimum goal for 2026 is 100 dogs.

“There are really no bad dogs in the shelter,” Zhou says. “They’re just dogs who are not yet ready to be adopted. If you put in enough love and time, any dog is an ideal candidate. The best thing to me is to see these babies find good families and have happy lives in the future.”

For more information, visit hope4fur.com.

Todd Shapiro is an award-winning publicist and associate publisher of Dan’s Papers.