Labrador saved from being sent to meat festival

Toby is eating a special diet of probiotic dog food to help him gain weight

A woman has fostered a Labrador that was destined for a dog meat festival in China after being abused for years.

Jackie Head, who volunteers for dog rescue charity Yappy Ever After, decided to give Toby a new home after spotting him on a charity website.

Believed to be aged about four, he weighed only 9 kg (1.4 stone) when Ms Head first got him - but he is now on a special diet with probiotic food to gain weight.

Before he was rescued, Toby had been through a lot of trauma, with his feet and body shaved and cigarette burns on his legs, but was adapting to his new life very well, she said.

"He's very very settled, he's a lovely boy, he's slotted right in and he's so well behaved," she said.

"With the fur coming back where it's been shaved, it's quite itchy for him, so he's having regular coconut oil massages into his skin, which is more than I get."

Ms Head, from Bulkington, Warwickshire, said Toby sits at the kerbside to wait to cross the road, and is fully house-trained.

'We were thinking about using a few Chinese commands, but [decided against that] when we thought, with the trauma he's been through and [because] we don't know if he speaks Mandarin or Cantonese," she said.

"If I clap he comes back to me, and if I whistle, he understands whistles."