Shocking video of dogs being beaten in Bali for meat trade
WARNING, GRAPHIC CONTENT: An Australian personal trainer living in Bali has revealed her desperate mission to rescue dogs tortured and killed for the meat trade and how she fears for her life if she continues.
In April, Sarahanne Cody, 31, rented out an Indonesian villa with the intention of flying back and forth from Melbourne to promote her successful online personal training business.
But just two days after moving in, Ms Cody was approached by a woman begging for her to help five puppies she had rescued. The had been beaten with sticks and the woman could not afford to care for them.
"No one would take them and she couldn't afford them, yet was brave enough to save them," Ms Cody told 7 News Online.
"I said, 'you know what I'm pretty much house bound at the moment, working online and setting up my villa, drop two off and I'll work it out.'"
Ms Cody organised for a vet to come and treat the abused puppies and used social media to desperately try and find them a home.
While advertising the puppies online, Ms Cody was contacted by one of the island's biggest animal rescuers and asked to spend the day at her clinic, Happy Paws.
"After the day at Happy Paws I said to Karin I'll help with all the dumped puppies as they are easy to manage from my villa," Ms Cody said.
"My villa turned into a shelter."
Karin is now Sarahanne's best friend on the island and attends to the worse cases of animal cruelty.
Ms Cody said at one stage she was housing nine puppies and a grown pitbull under her roof and struggled to find the funds to pay for their medication and food.
"It became so hard sometimes I wouldn't even get a chance to wash my hair and would eat canned tuna and eggs," she said.
Ms Cody said she took in many puppies dumped in garbage bins, beaten or covered in sewage.
In horrific footage obtained by a Bali dog rescue group and shared with 7 News Online, two men were seen chasing a tiny puppy and beating it with a stick.
Ms Cody said her biggest battle was an American staffy named Hero who had been left with badly deformed rear legs from being caged his whole life.
"He was also used as a bait dog and when almost dead tied to a tree and thrown in a drain," she said.
But the personal trainer formed an instant bond with the abused puppy as she has an American staffy in Melbourne with "similar mannerisms."
She is now trying to bring Hero back to Australia to keep him safe.
Ms Cody said she has been threatened for the work she does by those in the dog meat trade and has even had dead animals strung up outside her villa as a "warning."
"I want to stay here and be there person that creates change in Bali, but I have no protection here," she said.
Ms Cody said she hopes to raise enough money to buy a big property with security to relieve the overflowing kennels and rehabilitate abused animals.
She has launched a GoFundMe page to try and raise some of the funds.
