Wangwang Memorial Bench Vancouver | Story, Meaning & Location
- Vancity Officiant Team
- 8 hours ago
- 17 min read
Read this article in Traditional Chinese: 中文版全文
The Wangwang Memorial Bench Vancouver is a public memorial being established by Pawfect Witness™ along Richmond’s Middle Arm waterfront in British Columbia.
It remembers Wangwang and her three puppies. It also acknowledges the many abandoned, neglected, abused, unnamed and unseen animals whose stories may never receive public attention, together with the people who continue to care for them.
The bench is intended to be more than a record of one painful incident. It will be a lasting place of remembrance, compassion and rest. For rescuers, fosters, volunteers, advocates, animal welfare workers and others who repeatedly witness difficult cases, it is also meant to offer a quiet reminder that they are not standing alone.
The memorial bench is already fully funded. Pawfect Witness™ has paid the full dedication contribution to the City of Richmond. The GoFundMe does not determine whether the bench will happen. It provides a way for the wider community to participate in what the memorial represents, leave a message for Wangwang and stand alongside others who believe these lives should be remembered.
On This Page
Who Was Wangwang?
In June 2026, a mother dog known as Wangwang and her three puppies became victims of a widely reported animal cruelty incident in Jieyang, Guangdong, China.
Videos circulated online showing Wangwang and her puppies being subjected to severe abuse. Wangwang was later set on fire and died.
We do not believe her story needs to be kept alive by repeatedly showing or describing its most disturbing details. Wangwang should not be remembered only for the violence inflicted upon her.
What followed also matters.
Her story travelled far beyond Jieyang. People who had never met her, including people thousands of kilometres away in Vancouver, learned her name, grieved for her and questioned how an animal life could be treated with so little regard.
Wangwang became one of the rare animals whose story crossed borders and reached a large public audience. But she is not the only animal who matters. There are many “Wangwangs” every day: animals who are abandoned, neglected, abused or lost without their stories ever reaching the public. Some have no family, no photograph and no name. Some are known only to the rescuers or animal welfare workers who encountered them too late.
This bench begins with Wangwang and her three puppies, but it holds space for them too.
A Personal Note About This Illustration
While preparing this page, I searched for a photograph of Wangwang that could help people see her as more than the cruelty she endured. Some of the images documenting what happened to her were simply too painful and disturbing to reproduce here. Other, gentler photographs from her life as a stray had been widely shared online, but I could not trace their original photographers or confirm permission to republish them.
Rather than repeat the most traumatic images of her life or use someone else's photograph without consent, I chose to create this symbolic illustration of Wangwang with her three puppies. It is not intended to be an exact portrait. It is a gentler way to help readers hold an image of who she was: a mother, a living being and a life that deserved to be seen.
How Wangwang's Story Reached Beyond Borders
Wangwang’s story did not remain within Jieyang, or even within one language. As people tried to prevent her life from disappearing from public memory, accounts of what happened were translated and shared across international platforms. Reports documented material appearing in more than ten languages, together with memorial advertising and public actions in Taipei, New York, Hong Kong, Macau and Japan.
The responses took different forms. Some people translated and shared her story. Others created illustrations, memorial posts and public displays, or joined calls for stronger legal protection for animals. A Change.org petition connected to Wangwang’s case went on to receive more than 100,000 verified signatures.
Her name also reached international animal-protection organizations. After receiving more than one hundred reports and appeals from people in Italy, across Europe and in several other countries, OIPA International formally contacted the relevant Chinese authorities and embassies. The organization called for transparency, preventive measures and stronger legal protection for animals. Asia for Animals Coalition also created a public information resource to follow the case and share significant updates.
In New York, a memorial message for Wangwang appeared on a digital screen in Times Square while supporters gathered with signs calling for an end to animal cruelty and stronger protection. These actions were not centrally directed, nor did they all take the same approach. Together, however, they showed how people in different places were finding their own ways to carry her story forward.
In Hong Kong, animal adoption and support platform Suppaw organized the community-funded “Wangwang Goes for a Ride” campaign. It brought Wangwang’s image and the message “You don’t have to love them, but please don’t harm them” into the everyday cityscape. The campaign also carried the stories of other animals still waiting to be seen, allowing the attention surrounding Wangwang to reach lives that might otherwise remain unnoticed.
The Vancouver Wangwang Memorial Bench is not affiliated with or organized by these campaigns or organizations. It is one of the many independent responses that grew from the same shared recognition: Wangwang’s life mattered, her three puppies mattered, and the attention given to their story should also help us see animals whose names may never travel so far.
In Hong Kong, her image moved through the city. In New York, United States, her name appeared above Times Square. Around the world, people translated, signed, wrote, gathered and asked for change. In Canada, the Vancouver Wangwang Memorial Bench will give her name a lasting place to rest, while continuing to help others see the animal lives that deserve to be remembered too.
A Turning Point for Pawfect Witness™
Wangwang did not create the philosophy behind Pawfect Witness™. That philosophy already existed.
Pawfect Witness™ was created by Vancouver celebrants Kit Chan and Kevin Leung through our work with Vancity Officiant. In 2024, we started giving couples a meaningful way to acknowledge animals as part of the family being celebrated at weddings. Through paw prints, keepsake certificates, blessings and moments of remembrance, animals could be given a visible place in a ceremony, whether they were physically present or being remembered after their death.
The purpose was never to turn an animal into a wedding prop. It was to acknowledge a relationship that was already real.
Those wedding ceremonies quietly nurtured a larger belief: animal lives deserve to be seen, remembered and treated with compassion. Acknowledgement should not depend on species, status, circumstance, popularity or whether an animal was fortunate enough to have a family standing beside them.
Weddings were where this belief first became visible. They were never meant to be its limit.
We had already begun asking what acknowledgement might look like beyond weddings. What about animals who had no one? Could Pawfect Witness™ one day create a place for lives that might otherwise disappear without a name or public memory?
At that time, it was still an idea for the future.
Wangwang changed the timeline.
Her story made us feel that something we had imagined doing one day should not wait. The Wangwang Memorial Bench became the first public Pawfect Witness™ project, bringing the philosophy out of wedding ceremonies and into a shared physical space.
Wangwang is not the end of Pawfect Witness™. Wangwang is the beginning of Pawfect Witness™ going beyond weddings.
To understand the philosophy that existed before this memorial, read Pawfect Witness™: Every Life Deserves to Be Seen.
To follow the personal story from Fi Chai to Fagu, Maji and the first Pawfect Witness™ wedding ceremonies, read How Pawfect Witness™ Began: It Started With One Dog.
Why the Bench Is About More Than One Story
Wangwang's story moved many people because, for a brief time, the world saw her.
That visibility was unusual.
Many animals experience abandonment, neglect, cruelty and loss without attracting public attention. Their lives are not worth less because fewer people knew their names. Their suffering is not less real because no video travelled across the world. Their absence is not less meaningful because no memorial was created for them individually.
The bench therefore carries two forms of acknowledgement.
The first is for Wangwang and her three puppies. Their story is the reason this particular memorial began.
The second is for animals whose stories remain unseen. The plaque's words, “May those with no name be seen too,” make that purpose permanent.
Wangwang is named not to place her above other animals, but to let one remembered life open a space for many lives that were never publicly remembered at all.
Acknowledging the People Who Continue to Care
Animal welfare is not only difficult because there are so many animals in need. It is difficult because the people who care are asked to witness the same realities repeatedly.
Rescuers, fosters, shelter and veterinary workers, volunteers, advocates, transporters, donors and ordinary individuals may encounter abandonment, neglect, cruelty and loss again and again. Even when one animal is helped, another case follows. No one person can rescue every animal or change every system.
Over time, that can leave people exhausted, discouraged or wondering whether their efforts matter.
The bench cannot remove that burden. But it can acknowledge it.
The final two lines of the plaque are intended for the people who continue:
MAY THIS PLACE OFFER A MOMENT OF REST TO THOSE WHO CONTINUE TO STAND FOR ANIMALS
This is why the memorial is meant to be both a place of remembrance and a place of recharge. Someone may sit there to remember Wangwang, another animal they could not save, an animal they loved personally, or simply the many lives they have carried in their thoughts.
The bench asks nothing from them in that moment. It simply offers a place to pause, breathe and remember that caring still has value.
It also carries another quiet message:
You are not the only one who still cares.
Why a Memorial Bench?
A memorial bench is simple. It does not change a law, undo an act of cruelty or rescue every animal that needs help.
But it can do something lasting.
It can give a life a physical place in public memory. It can allow Wangwang's name to exist apart from the images of her suffering. It can remain after the original social-media attention has passed. And it can invite people to respond through reflection and compassion rather than anger alone.
We did not want this project to depend on protest, temporary outrage or the repeated circulation of traumatic material. Those responses may be understandable, but they are not the only ways a story can continue.
The bench is meant to turn grief into something constructive, restorative and capable of lasting beyond the incident that inspired it.
A place to sit. A place to remember. A place that says:
We saw you. We remember you. Your life mattered.
Final Plaque Wording
The final five-line plaque wording submitted for the Wangwang Memorial Bench is:
FOR WANGWANG AND HER THREE PUPPIES MAY THEIR STORY MOVE US TOWARD COMPASSION MAY THOSE WITH NO NAME BE SEEN TOO MAY THIS PLACE OFFER A MOMENT OF REST TO THOSE WHO CONTINUE TO STAND FOR ANIMALS
Each line has a distinct purpose.
“For Wangwang and her three puppies” names the lives that brought the project into being.
“May their story move us toward compassion” directs the memorial toward what comes next, rather than leaving it centred on violence.
“May those with no name be seen too” extends the acknowledgement to animals whose stories may never become known.
“May this place offer a moment of rest” gives the physical bench a restorative purpose.
“To those who continue to stand for animals” recognizes the people who keep caring despite what they repeatedly witness.
Location of the Wangwang Memorial Bench
The bench will be located along the Middle Arm waterfront in Richmond, British Columbia, near the UBC Boathouse and facing Vancouver International Airport (YVR).
The location carries a meaning of its own. Wangwang lived thousands of kilometres away, yet her story crossed borders and reached people here in Vancouver. Her memorial will face one of the region's gateways to the world.
For a story that travelled so far, that feels fitting.
City of Richmond Process and Current Status
Current status: August 2026
The Wangwang Memorial Bench is being established through the City of Richmond's commemorative bench process.
The location has been identified and confirmed. The five-line plaque wording has been submitted through the City's review process. Pawfect Witness™ has also paid the full City of Richmond dedication contribution, which means the memorial bench is fully funded and moving forward.
The City has advised that the remaining plaque preparation and installation process is expected to take approximately six weeks. Based on the current timeline, installation may take place around late September 2026, although the final date remains subject to the City’s administrative process and installation schedule.
The remaining work is administrative and installation-related. The City is preparing the official plaque layout and coordinating the steps required before installation. The appearance and line layout of the City's final plaque may differ slightly from any conceptual mockup previously shared.
This page will be updated when the City confirms the plaque and installation details.
How Our Pawfect Witness™ Couples Helped Make This Bench Possible
The decision to fully fund the Wangwang Memorial Bench did not begin with a fundraising campaign. In many ways, it began through the couples who had already taken part in Pawfect Witness™ ceremonies.
Through Pawfect Witness™, participating couples made a contribution directly to an animal charity, and we created and led the Pawfect Witness™ portion of their ceremony without charging an additional fee. Their animals left pawprints as signatures, their families made space for animal lives to be acknowledged, and their weddings supported animals beyond the ceremony itself.
When the opportunity arose to establish the Wangwang Memorial Bench, we wanted that collective generosity to continue forward. We chose to match the amount our Pawfect Witness™ couples had collectively contributed to animal charities and use our matching contribution to make this public memorial possible.
In that sense, those couples are part of this bench too. Their ceremonies may have ended, but the compassion expressed through them did not. It has continued into a lasting public place that remembers Wangwang and her three puppies, acknowledges animals whose names may never be known, and offers rest to those who continue to stand for them.
Why We Fully Funded the Bench and Still Opened a GoFundMe
From the beginning, we knew that the Wangwang Memorial Bench needed to happen whether the public contributed a great deal, a little or nothing at all. We did not want to make Wangwang's memorial conditional upon a fundraising result.
We also wanted to make clear that the project was not created to use Wangwang's story for attention, traffic or promotion. Paying the full dedication contribution allowed the memorial to proceed independently of the amount of public response it received.
Crowdfunding can take time, and waiting to reach a target could have delayed the approval and installation process. We therefore chose the most direct route available: secure a location the City of Richmond could approve, pay the required contribution and move the project toward completion as soon as possible. Seeing the memorial become real mattered more than building a larger campaign around it.
The GoFundMe was opened only after the bench had been funded. It gives people who feel connected to Wangwang's story a way to participate, leave a message and stand alongside the meaning of the memorial. The size of a contribution does not measure how deeply someone cares.
The bench is not waiting for funding. It is moving forward.
Pawfect Witness™ is an animal-focused initiative, not a registered charity. Contributions are not presented as tax-deductible charitable donations. All contributions received through the GoFundMe will go toward the bench and plaque cost already paid by Pawfect Witness™.
Leave a Message for Wangwang
If you would like your words to become part of this memorial, please leave a message for Wangwang and her three puppies in the Words of Support section of our GoFundMe page.
Your message does not need to be long. It may be a few words of love, a promise that they will not be forgotten, or simply what Wangwang's story has meant to you.
If the City of Richmond permits us to participate in the installation, we plan to read the messages for Wangwang and her three puppies aloud, one by one, at the bench on installation day. We also hope to share this acknowledgement through an online livestream, so that those who cannot be there may still take part.
Installation-Day Acknowledgement and Livestream
We are asking the City of Richmond whether we may be present when the memorial plaque is installed.
If the City confirms that arrangement, we plan to bring the names of GoFundMe participants and the messages they leave for Wangwang to the bench. We also plan to share the installation moment through an online livestream and acknowledge participants by reading their names together with their messages at the memorial.
These plans remain subject to the City's installation arrangements. Confirmed details will be published on this page when available.
The purpose is not to create a hierarchy based on donation amounts. It is to make visible the community of people who chose to stand beside the meaning of the memorial.
A Beginning, Not an Ending
The Wangwang Memorial Bench is one physical place, but its meaning is not limited to one bench or one animal welfare case.
It represents a shift in Pawfect Witness™ from acknowledging animals within wedding ceremonies to exploring how acknowledgement can also exist in public spaces, memorial projects and other forms that have not yet been imagined.
The form may continue to change. The philosophy should remain clear:
Every animal life deserves to be seen. Acknowledgement should not depend on species, status, circumstance, popularity or money. The animals who had no one deserve a place in our collective memory. The people who continue to care deserve to know that they are not alone.
Wangwang's story brought this future forward.
Wangwang is not the end of Pawfect Witness™. Wangwang is the beginning of Pawfect Witness™ going beyond weddings.
About Pawfect Witness™
Pawfect Witness™ was founded by Kit Chan and Kevin Leung of Vancity Officiant. It began through pet-inclusive wedding ceremonies in Vancouver, where animals could be acknowledged as part of the family being celebrated or lovingly remembered.
The Wangwang Memorial Bench is the first public Pawfect Witness™ project beyond weddings. It carries the same underlying belief into a shared public space: animal lives deserve to be seen, remembered and treated with compassion, and the people who continue to stand for them deserve to know that they are not alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Wangwang Memorial Bench Vancouver?
The Wangwang Memorial Bench Vancouver is a public commemorative bench being established by Pawfect Witness™ in Richmond, British Columbia. It remembers Wangwang and her three puppies, acknowledges unseen and unnamed animals, and offers a place of rest for people who continue to stand for animals.
Who was Wangwang?
Wangwang was a mother dog in Jieyang, Guangdong, China. In June 2026, she and her three puppies became victims of a widely reported animal cruelty incident. Wangwang was later set on fire and died. Her story travelled internationally and moved many people, including the creators of Pawfect Witness™ in Vancouver.
Where is the Wangwang Memorial Bench located?
The bench will be located along Richmond's Middle Arm waterfront near the UBC Boathouse, facing Vancouver International Airport. View the exact location on Google Maps.
Is the Wangwang Memorial Bench in Vancouver or Richmond?
The bench is physically located in Richmond, British Columbia, within the Metro Vancouver region. “Wangwang Memorial Bench Vancouver” is used to help people outside the region understand its broader Vancouver-area location.
Has the Wangwang Memorial Bench been fully funded?
Yes. Pawfect Witness™ has paid the full dedication contribution to the City of Richmond. The bench does not depend on GoFundMe contributions in order to proceed.
How long will the Wangwang Memorial Bench remain in place?
The City of Richmond's memorial bench dedication term is ten years, and Pawfect Witness™ has fully funded the Wangwang Memorial Bench for that entire ten-year period.
At the end of the initial term, there is an option to renew the dedication for a further term under the City's arrangements at that time. Our intention is for the Wangwang Memorial Bench to remain in place for more than ten years, and we hope to pursue that renewal when the time comes.
When will the Wangwang Memorial Bench Vancouver be installed?
The City of Richmond has advised that the remaining plaque preparation and installation process is expected to take approximately six weeks. Based on the current timeline, the bench may be installed around late September 2026. This is an estimated timeframe rather than a confirmed installation date, and the schedule may change depending on the City’s administrative and installation arrangements. We will update this page when the installation date or completion is confirmed.
Why is there a GoFundMe if the bench is already funded?
The GoFundMe gives people who care about Wangwang and animal lives a way to participate in the memorial. Its purpose is community participation, remembrance and acknowledgement, not financial necessity. Visit the Wangwang Memorial Bench GoFundMe.
Is a contribution to the GoFundMe a charitable donation?
No. Pawfect Witness™ is not a registered charity, and the GoFundMe is not a charitable fundraising campaign. Contributions are a form of participation in the memorial project and are not presented as tax-deductible charitable gifts.
Can I leave a message for Wangwang?
Yes. If you leave a message for Wangwang and her three puppies in the GoFundMe comments section, we plan to read each message aloud during the bench installation, if the City of Richmond permits us to take part in the installation.
Will participant names and messages be acknowledged at the bench?
If the City of Richmond confirms that Pawfect Witness™ may attend the plaque installation, the plan is to bring participant names and messages to the bench, livestream the moment online and read the names and messages as part of the acknowledgement. Final arrangements depend on City confirmation.
What does the plaque say?
The plaque reads: “For Wangwang and her three puppies / May their story move us toward compassion / May those with no name be seen too / May this place offer a moment of rest / To those who continue to stand for animals.”
Is the bench only for Wangwang?
No. Wangwang and her three puppies are the lives who inspired the project, but the bench also acknowledges animals whose abandonment, neglect, abuse or loss may never receive public attention. It also recognizes the people who continue to care for animals.
Why does the plaque acknowledge people who stand for animals?
Rescuers, fosters, volunteers, advocates, animal welfare workers and others often witness difficult cases repeatedly. The bench is intended to offer them a place to pause and a reminder that their care matters and that they are not alone.
Is Pawfect Witness™ only about weddings?
Pawfect Witness™ began through pet-inclusive wedding ceremonies, but its philosophy has always been broader: animal lives deserve to be seen, remembered and treated with compassion. The Wangwang Memorial Bench is its first public project beyond weddings.
Will Pawfect Witness™ only create the Wangwang Memorial Bench?
No. The Wangwang Memorial Bench is the first public Pawfect Witness™ project beyond weddings, but it is not intended to define the limit of what Pawfect Witness™ may become. Future projects may acknowledge other animals, stories or forms of care, and they may take forms beyond memorial benches. Pawfect Witness™ also welcomes thoughtful ideas from people who share its belief that animal lives deserve to be seen and remembered.
Who created Pawfect Witness™ and organized the Wangwang Memorial Bench?
Pawfect Witness™ was created by Vancouver celebrants Kit Chan and Kevin Leung through their work with Vancity Officiant. Kit and Kevin initiated and fully funded the Wangwang Memorial Bench through Pawfect Witness™ as its first public project beyond weddings.
