Pawfect Witness™: Every Life Deserves to Be Seen
- Vancity Officiant Team
- 4 hours ago
- 8 min read
From pet-inclusive weddings to the Wang Wang Memorial Bench in Vancouver, Pawfect Witness™ is built on a simple belief: every animal life deserves acknowledgement, and no one who cares should feel that they are standing alone.
Pawfect Witness™ began through our wedding ceremony work in Vancouver in 2024, giving couples a meaningful way to acknowledge their animals as part of the family they were celebrating.
But the belief behind it was always larger than weddings.
At its heart, Pawfect Witness™ is about acknowledgement: seeing a life, recognizing that it matters, and giving it a place in our collective story. What began with animals already deeply loved by their families has gradually led us to a much bigger question:
What about the ones who have no one to witness them?
The abandoned, the forgotten, the mistreated, the unnamed, and the animals whose lives may pass without anyone knowing they were ever here.
Pawfect Witness™ is our evolving answer to that question.
In This Article
Every Life Deserves to Be Seen
Pawfect Witness™ began by acknowledging animals within weddings. A paw print on a keepsake certificate, a blessing during a ceremony, or simply a few words recognizing an animal as family may seem like small gestures, but the meaning behind them is much larger.
They say: I see you. You belong here. Your life matters.
Over time, we began asking ourselves why that acknowledgement should stop with animals fortunate enough to already have someone who loves them.
What about an animal without a family? What about one who was abandoned, forgotten, mistreated, or never given a name? What about the countless animals whose stories will never travel beyond the places where they lived and died?
Their lives are not worth less because fewer people witnessed them.
This has become one of the foundations of Pawfect Witness™:
Every animal life deserves to be seen, whether that life was known by thousands, loved by one, or remembered by no one at all.
Acknowledgement Has No Hierarchy
This belief grew naturally from something we had already learned through years of creating wedding ceremonies.
A wedding does not become more meaningful because it is larger. A quiet ceremony between two people is not less worthy of acknowledgement than a celebration attended by hundreds.
The same principle applies beyond weddings.
A life is not more valuable because of its species. An animal is not more important because it has a family, a pedigree, a following, or a name. And an act of support is not more meaningful simply because a larger amount of money was attached to it.
Acknowledgement should not have a hierarchy.
To us, this is what equality looks like at its simplest: not deciding who deserves to matter based on size, status, species, circumstance, or money.
Pawfect Witness™ began with weddings because that was where we first had an opportunity to put this belief into practice. But weddings were never the boundary of the idea. They were simply where it first became visible.
Love Can Continue Beyond Loss
We know this personally.
Long before Pawfect Witness™ had a name, experiences within our own family taught us that losing an animal and continuing to love other animals are not opposing things. Sometimes the love left behind by one life becomes part of what makes another life possible.
That personal journey, from our own wedding and the loss of Fi Chai to welcoming Fagu and Maji into our family, eventually became part of how Pawfect Witness™ came to exist.
But the principle is simple:
Loss may change where love goes. It does not have to be where love stops.
You Are Not Alone
Pawfect Witness™ is about seeing animals, but increasingly we have realized that there is another group we hope it can help make visible: the people who care about them.
Caring deeply about animals can sometimes feel overwhelming. There will always be another animal that needs help, another story that is difficult to read, and another situation that one individual cannot change.
No one person can rescue every animal. No one person can change every law, every culture, every system, or every human heart. That can leave people feeling powerless.
But being unable to change everything does not mean caring about something has no value.
Sometimes what people need is simply to look around and realize:
I am not the only one who still cares.
That matters to us personally too.
As Pawfect Witness™ grows, we want to be able to see the people standing beside us, not because we expect everyone to contribute in the same way, but because knowing that others share this belief gives us the strength to continue.
And perhaps seeing one another can give others that strength too.
You are not alone. Neither are we.
We Begin Before We Ask
This principle shapes how we want Pawfect Witness™ projects to work.
When we believe a project should happen and make a commitment to it, our intention is not to wait for the public to fund it before deciding whether it deserves to exist.
Our actions should come before our ask. We begin first.
Community support can help projects continue, grow, and reach further. But support should represent participation, not permission.
This is also why we do not want the value of participation to be measured primarily in dollars.
Someone contributing $5 and someone contributing $500 are giving different amounts of money. They are not expressing different levels of compassion.
To us, one of the most meaningful things a contribution can communicate is simply:
I believe in this too. I am standing here with you.
That is the kind of support we want Pawfect Witness™ to make visible. Not how much each person gave, but the fact that none of us is standing here alone.
Pawfect Witness™ in Action: The Wang Wang Memorial Bench in Vancouver
The first public project to carry this philosophy beyond weddings is the Wang Wang Memorial Bench in Vancouver.
Who Was Wang Wang?
In June 2026, a mother dog known as Wang Wang and her puppies became victims of a widely reported animal cruelty incident in Jieyang, Guangdong, China.
Videos circulated online showing Wang Wang and her puppies being subjected to severe abuse. Wang Wang was later set on fire and died.
We do not believe remembering Wang Wang requires repeatedly describing or sharing the most disturbing details of what happened to her. Her suffering should not become the only thing that defines her name.
What matters here is what happened afterwards.
Her story travelled far beyond Jieyang. People who had never met Wang Wang and lived thousands of kilometres away learned her name, grieved for her, and questioned how a life could be treated with so little regard.
We were among them.
Wang Wang Brought the Future Forward
Wang Wang did not create the philosophy behind Pawfect Witness™. That philosophy already existed.
But her story changed its timeline.
We had already wondered whether Pawfect Witness™ could eventually grow beyond weddings and acknowledge animals who had no family standing beside them. It was something we imagined for the future.
Wang Wang made us question why it had to remain there.
She brought the future forward.
We cannot change what happened to her, and we cannot give her the life she should have had. But we can choose what we allow her story to inspire in us.
We do not want Wang Wang to remain only the name of an animal cruelty case. We want her name to become part of what happens next.
If one remembered life can help another life be seen, if grief can become compassion, and if people who were affected by her story can recognize that they are not alone in caring, then something meaningful can continue beyond what happened to her.
Why a Memorial Bench?
A memorial bench is a simple thing. It does not change laws. It cannot undo cruelty. It cannot rescue every animal that needs help.
But it can do something Pawfect Witness™ believes deeply in:
It can acknowledge that a life was here.
The Wang Wang Memorial Bench will create a quiet, physical and lasting place where her name can exist apart from the violence associated with her death.
A place to sit. A place to remember. A place that says:
We saw you. We remember you. Your life mattered.
But the bench is not only about Wang Wang.
Her story became visible around the world. Many animals never receive that visibility. Some die without a family, a photograph, a name, or anyone knowing their story.
When we remember Wang Wang, we hope there will always be space beside her memory for them too.
That is why this bench represents more than a memorial.
It is the first physical expression of what Pawfect Witness™ is becoming.
Wang Wang Memorial Bench: Project Update
Last updated: August 2026
The Wang Wang Memorial Bench in Vancouver is now moving from an idea toward a real place.
We have been working with the City of Richmond and have received confirmation that the proposed memorial plaque can move forward. A location for the bench has also been identified and confirmed.
The bench will be located in Richmond, British Columbia, within the Vancouver area, overlooking Vancouver International Airport (YVR).
There is something meaningful to us about that location. Wang Wang lived thousands of kilometres away, yet her story travelled across borders and eventually reached us here in Vancouver. One day, her name will have a permanent place overlooking one of Vancouver's gateways to the world.
Perhaps that is fitting for a life whose story travelled so far.
We are currently waiting for the remaining administrative details to be finalized and for the City to proceed with accepting our contribution toward the memorial bench. Once those steps are completed, we will be able to move the project forward and share more details publicly.
The important thing for us today is this:
The Wang Wang Memorial Bench is no longer simply something we hope to do. It has already begun.
We will continue updating this section as the project progresses.
Where Pawfect Witness™ Goes From Here
We do not know exactly what Pawfect Witness™ will become, and we do not think we need to decide that today.
There may be more memorial benches. There may be other forms of animal remembrance, community projects, partnerships, or ideas we have not imagined yet.
Perhaps one day there will even be a permanent place where animals who had no family, no name, or no one left to remember them can still be acknowledged and given a place in our collective memory.
The form can grow. The philosophy should remain simple.
Every animal life deserves to be seen. Acknowledgement should not depend on size, status, species, circumstance, or money. Love can continue beyond loss. The people who care should be able to see one another. And when we believe something should exist, we should be willing to take the first step ourselves.
Pawfect Witness™ began within weddings. That will always be part of its story.
But today, with the Wang Wang Memorial Bench in Vancouver becoming our first public project, we are beginning to understand that the idea was never meant to stop there.
Every life deserves to be seen. And no one who believes that should have to stand alone.
Follow the Journey
The Wang Wang Memorial Bench in Vancouver is now underway, and this page will continue to be updated as the project develops.
