Despite his family’s complaints, a businessman in China spends around $144,000 a year to sustain his breeding center of a growing pack of wolves.

Considering the horrendous and stereotypical fate of China’s “wild” dogs during the annual Yulin festival, it’s safe to say that faith in humanity has been restored, even if just a bit, thanks to this case.

Wolves are not domesticated animals and people are should be very careful to treat them as pets, but it seems like this 71-year-old businessman doesn’t mind. The businessman, named Yang, spends $144,000 a year in order to take care of his pack of 150 domesticated wolves, according to Shanghaiist.

Of course, his family was initially unhappy about his decision and the fact that he spends so much money and time on his “hobby”, but he discovered that the more time he spends with the animals, the greater the love he feels towards them. And for those who are wondering, he is able to spend this lucrative amount of money thanks to funds from his logistics company.

His passion to care for wolves began in 1988 when he came across a female wolf locked up in one of his friend’s house. Her paws were tightly bound in manacles and chains. He requested for the cage to be opened so that he could loosen the manacles and the chains. Soon after the wolf was released from the cage, the “wild” animal did something that surprised him.

Yang said that the wolf immediately knelt down at his feet like what a pet dog would do. His friend ended up sending him that wolf together with several cubs as a gift.

It would be normal for most people to feel threatened about their safety, but not Yang. He said that he thoroughly enjoys interacting with them everyday, South China Morning Post reported.

Over the years, he said that he’d only been bitten once by a wolf, but he was rescued immediately by a pack of wolves and attacked the one that bit him.

Wolves are known native animals from Eurasia and North America. Sadly, these animals have mostly been much persecuted and exterminated from their natural habitats.