Yulin Dog Meat Festival Outrages Animal Rights Activists

All around the world, animal rights activists, including comedian Ricky Gervais, have been outraged by China's annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival. This 10-day dog meat festival sees hundreds of dogs slaughtered and butchered before being prepared for cooking and eating by locals and visitors to the event.

Dogs are eaten in various countries across Eastern Asia but contrary to belief, the eating of dogs is not endemic to China where the Yulin Dog Meat Festival takes place. Those that back the Yulin Festival claim that it's just a cultural and historic practice and so cannot be right or wrong but the Festival in fact only dates back to 2009 and so is, in terms of China's cultural history, a new event rather than one steeped in tradition. Many Chinese people are just as horrified by the way that dogs are kept, killed, and butchered for human consumption during the ten-day event.

Chinese people have reported that they fear many pet dogs are stolen and slaughtered in the lead up to the festival. The event is mainly attended by people living locally to Yulin although some travel great distances to attend, believing that the meat of dogs is good for the body.

Animal activists in China and from around the world have condemned the festival and have been campaigning with little effect to get the now notorious festival banned by the Chinese authorities.

The festival always coincides with the summer solstice and people from the Yulin area claim that eating dog meat on the solstice, the longest day of the year, brings good luck.

Chinese animal activists along with everyday dog lovers see the festival as an insult to humanity and many attend the festival to confront the dog meat traders and those that feast on the dogs.

Acting in similar ways to anti-hunt activists and saboteurs in the UK, Chinese activists have in the past raided dog abattoirs and freed dogs destined for slaughter and the pot.

Activists claim that the festival is not only inhumane but also unhygienic with dogs kept in small cages and prepared in dirty conditions.

The Sun newspaper reports one local resident as saying:

"Those scenes of bloody dog slaughter that you see online, I want to say that the killing of any animal will be bloody. I hope people can look at this objectively."

People in the West often mistakenly believe that countries like China have no concerns over animal rights but there is a very active culture of animal rights activism in China. One of the biggest animal rights organisations in China, the Humane Society, issued a statement condemning the Yulin Lychee and Dog Meat Festival. The society said that the festival was a "manufactured" event and not part of the traditional mainstream food culture of China.

Although not sanctioned by the Yulin authorities, the police have been deployed this year not against the meat traders, but against the activists and the police themselves say that their efforts to "maintain stability" has led to fewer activists in the city this year.

The Express reports Dr. Li, Humane Society International’s China policy specialist, as saying:

“I do feel traumatised from seeing the suffering of the dogs, their hopeless looks and their inability to escape the slaughterhouse, and yet knowing that they still trust us humans."

Dogs are said to be "man's best friend" and have been kept as working animals, pets, and companions by cultures and peoples all around the globe. They are all canines and most types of dog can interbreed. Dogs are eaten by people in very few countries and for the most part are loved or at least tolerated by most people. A concerted effort to raise awareness of the cruelty of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival is now underway in an attempt to get future festivals canceled.

Sources cited:

The Sun: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6591863/yulin-dog-festival-stolen-pets-strays-slaughtered-for-food/

The Express: https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/977683/Yulin-dog-meat-festival-Hero-animal-rescuer-s-nightmares-pet-china