Every year at the summer solstice, thousands and thousands of dogs becomes food to Yulin, Guangxi locals. These locals claimthat these dogs are killed humanely as they said “eating dog is no different from eating pork or beef”
However, campaigners beg to differ, they strongly claimed that the dogs are killed brutally and abominably. Some are being boiled, skinned and burned alive without mercy.
Not only they kill dogs and eat them as dinner or lunch, they also steal other people’s pet dog even if it’s inside their owner’s compound so that they could satisfy their pleasure in killing and having the guts to eat these dogs without conscience. This fact is supported by various pictures on the internet of dogs with collars in their necks clearly showing ownership.
Just imagine if your pet is taken away from you, a pet you treasure like your own and these horrid, torturous ways of butchery is done to them?Would you just sit still and watch it happen? Won’t you step forward and stop this inhumane tradition?
DOGS ARE PETS NOT FOOD!!
These practices are not only harmful and painful to dogs, but also humans, dog meat is not meant to be eaten because of various diseases, viruses and worms. They might be immune to these, but how would you feel if not only you, but your kids or nephew or niece or maybe your siblings or simply your whole family caught such diseases?
By signing this petition you won’t only stop Yulin Festival but also save countless dogs that are in danger as well as families and children that are at risk.
HELP US ERADICATE YULIN FESTIVAL AND SAVE THOUSANDS OF DOGS!
Hei-hei is 3 years old. She loves snoozing spread-eagled on her back, playing with a football, and sausages. She hates early morning exercise and, clichés be damned, cats — especially that sandy-colored rascal who is forever prowling our roof. And were she not rescued from a construction site as a puppy, Hei-hei may well have now have been eaten.
My wife and I recently adopted Hei-hei from the TACN rescue center on the outskirts of Beijing. Like practically all the animals there, she was destined for China’s dog-meat trade. An estimated 10 million dogs are devoured across China each year, including around 10,000 that end up at the infamous Yulin Dog Meat Festival, which kicks off once again on June 21 in Guangxi.
But perhaps not for long. Last Friday, dozens of protesters gathered at the Yulin government offices in Beijing to present a petition of 11 million signatures demanding the festival’s abolition. “Yulin is a total embarrassment to China,” says Xu Yufeng, founder of Beijing Mothers Against Animal Cruelty. The event should end, she added, “in the interests of public security, food safety, social morality and China’s reputation.”
Every culture has its culinary peccadillos, and China has a long history of eating dogs. The practice predates written annals, and even the craftsmen who created the famed Terracotta Army were partial, according to a new study. It is a habit mirrored in other Asian nations — from Cambodia and Vietnam to Korea. Traditionally, dogs are eaten for medicinal qualities, as their meat is supposed to stoke the body’s yang energy. At Yulin, there’s also a superstition about bringing good fortune at the summer solstice.
“Dogs are no different than other livestock, and dog meat is nutritious,” one Beijing dog farmer and butcher, who sells about 50 kg of dog meat a day to restaurants and private households, tells TIME. “I think we should eat dogs, which are just farm animals, like pigs.”
China has less than 100 recognized dog farms, most of which are very small, say animal-rights activists, keeping around 30 adult dogs at any one time to prevent the incidence and spread of diseases. The above farmer, who asks to remain anonymous, keeps just 50 young and mature animals, and says it takes six or seven months until dogs are ready for slaughter.
This tiny capacity means that the vast majority of the canines eaten in China are strays and pilfered pets (warning: distressing link). Dog owners across the country have to be on red alert for snatch thieves in the run-up to Yulin.
While eating dog has ancient roots, Yulin’s supporters can’t pretend that the festival has precedent. The event only started in the 1990s and isn’t official — the local authorities even deny there is a festival as such. Instead, they say it’s simply an informal gathering of like-minded individuals. Dogs are bludgeoned to death on the spot, and then eaten with an accompaniment of lychees and grain alcohol.
China’s growing affluence, however, is quickly changing it into a nation of dog lovers, not eaters. To be sure, in harsher times dogs were either a source food or protection — but now they increasingly kept for companionship. Day or night, our quiet Beijing street teems with handsome pedigrees, including a silky black labrador, a couple of imperious corgis and an enormous Siberian husky. (Such breeds, being over 35 cm tall, are technically illegal inside the city center, though the authorities evidently turn one heck of a blind eye.) Our Hei-hei — a Pekingese cross, we believe — looks quite the cur in such well-bred circles.
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“Dogs are humans’ friends. They safeguard people and even rescue people. Having dogs also helps children with autism,” says an anti-Yulin protester, Qi Qi, 33, holding a rescued black poodle called Nu-nu. “And dogs need to be cared for and vaccinated.”
People eat dog meat at a dog-meat restaurant district during the Yulin Dog Meat Festival in the Chinese city of Yulin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on June 22, 2015Kim Kyung Horn—Reuters
The preening, affection and potentially deleterious rule flouting exhibited by China’s urban pet owners is hard to reconcile with the barbarity of Yulin. Thousands of distressed animals are packed into sweltering crates, at the very zenith of the summer inferno, and transported in journeys that can last days to the southern city of 7 million. Many are dead on arrival. Rabies, which kills around 100 Chinese each year, is a major concern. Dogs are responsible for 9 out of 10 cases in China. Eating strays and pets at Yulin, with no clue as to their origin or health, is worse than scavenging roadkill.
Protesters have had some success before. In 2011, Chinese authorities banned the Jinhua Hutou Dog Meat Festival in Zhejiang province. That festival dated back six centuries and was rooted in commemoration of a legendary battle, yet it was nixed because of the public outcry.
Yulin could be stopped if current laws, which prohibit the mass transportation of live animals without prior laboratory quarantine, were implemented. Currently, the trucks that arrive in Yulin are waved through. (China has a draft animal-welfare law but it’s not yet been passed.)
According to Professor Guo Peng, an expert in the dog-meat trade at Shandong University, the Yulin government has repeatedly ignored regulation violations she has personally brought to their attention, though it has taken some measures to reduce the tension caused by the festival. “The Yulin government is a local regulator of a remote area,” she says, “I’m not sure of the [central] government’s power of execution.”
Instead, activists are taking the lead. On Wednesday, the Humane Society International (HSI) said it had rescued 29 dogs and five cats from a slaughterhouse in Yulin. “Once they realized we weren’t there to hurt them, but in fact we would make their suffering stop at last, they very quickly responded with licks and wagging tails,” said Peter Li, HSI’s China policy specialist.
Even so, and despite Chinese new affection for man’s best friend, Yulin, and the dog-meat trade in general, will be hard to stamp out while it remains so lucrative. “Most of the dog meat is from stolen dogs, so there is no cost in breeding and the price is lower than pork and lamb, leading to a high profit margin,” adds Guo. “It is difficult for the government to stop the chasing of profit.”
But reports of the festival’s demise, or even a sanction on dog meat sales that could negatively impact the festival, appear to be largely unfounded.
“We have spoken with several people working within the mayor’s office, the food and drug administration and the municipal building and no one seems aware of a Yulin festival ban,” said Jason Baker, Vice President of International Campaigns at PETA.
The festival faces negative press every year, with widespread condemnation from dog lovers worldwide. But in May, animal rights organizations Duo Duo and Humane Society International sensed a breakthrough when they released press releases claiming government officials had said they intended to implement a ban on dog meat in markets, streets and restaurants.
This followed a particularly strong backlash in 2016; a petition bearing 11 million signatures that called for the end of the festival was delivered to the Yulin government, while a celebrity PSA video starring Matt Damon and Rooney Mara that decried the event went viral.
However, in the lead up to the festival — due to take place on June 23 — activists who had made a recent trip to Yulin said there was no indication that a government intervention would occur.
“On May 29, I had a sit down meeting with officials in the Yulin government,” said Marc Ching, founder of animal rights organization Animal Hope and Wellness. He said he was told “there is no ban on dog meat sales during the festival as some animal rights groups have claimed.”
Stolen pets
According to Ching, the import of dogs has already started to the small city in the southern province of Guangxi — with stolen pets likely to be among them.
“Our ground team has already spotted trucks carrying stolen dogs entering the city,” said Ching, who will also be working during the festival to identify illegally sourced dogs protected under Chinese law.
“We will stop trucks, scanning the dogs for microchips — our foundation has microchipped thousands of dogs in the last few weeks in dog meat stealing areas — hoping to find stolen dogs on board the trucks as we intercept them. [We’ll be] asking police to enforce the law, theft of stolen property.”
The widespread misperception that the event would be cancelled is not uncommon, according to PETA’s Baker.
“Perhaps someone knows something that we don’t, but [we] suspect this is simply another rumor similar to last year, in which several media reports announced the festival was cancelled,” he said.
Ching, meanwhile, claimed Yulin government officials chalked this year’s rumors up to dishonest charity groups seeking public donations, and described the dog meat ban as a “ploy to discredit the Chinese government.”
One official, who declined to give his name, told FORBES the dog meat festival was a small event privately organized by individuals and that media reports otherwise were simply “hype.”
Millions eaten globally
Around 10,000 dogs are slaughtered at the festival every year. An estimated 30 million dogs are eaten annually worldwide, according to Humane Society International.
Supporters of the festival, which started informally among Yulin restaurant owners in the late 90s, argue that eating dog is a cultural tradition in Asia, where dog meat has traditionally been used for centuries. They also believe the consumption of dog meat is no different to other types of more common animal meat, such as pork and beef, and is a matter of cultural relativism.
But critics say the festival is unnecessarily inhumane for dogs. Some believe tortured dogs will provide better meat, so conditions with which dogs are transported and slaughtered are often poor with little oversight. Many of the dogs are unvaccinated and rabies is a major concern. There have also been accusations that some vendors even steal unattended family pets in a bid to meet the demand — and the increasingly high prices — for dog meat at the festival.
Despite worldwide opposition to the practice, confusing media reports about the fate of the festival may have worked in its favor this year.
“Because of the fabrication and false news spread by media and certain animal rights groups, this is the first year that the people have become silent. It is the pressure by the people that brings about change,” said Ching.
“The Yulin Dog Meat Festival is still happening, whether or not you choose to believe it.”
Pet Nanny Liz's / Happi Paws blog 