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Hundreds of animals rescued but many more to be slaughtered as Yulin Dog Meat Festival gets underway in China

THEY have been plucked from loving homes to be skinned and boiled alive. This is the grim reality for many pups at the Yulin Dog Meat Festival in China. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT.

Lauren McMahLauren McMah
@lauren_mcmah
3 min read
June 22, 2015 - 3:09PM
Animal-lover Yang Xiaoyun (centre) inspects a dog that has been captured to be sold as food as Yulin. Picture: AFP
Animal-lover Yang Xiaoyun (centre) inspects a dog that has been captured to be sold as food as Yulin. Picture: AFP

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

HUNDREDS of dogs have been saved from a brutal end, but China’s controversial Yulin Dog Meat festival has gone ahead, despite international outrage.

The festival, held in Yulin, southern China, has been branded “inhumane” with dogs plucked from the street or even loving homes, before being bludgeoned to death — or worse, being skinned and boiled alive.

Charity workers have saved hundreds of dogs (as well as cats) from meat traders as a global chorus calls for an end to the “brutal” event.

One Chinese woman paid about 7000 yuan ($A1450) to save 100 dogs from slaughter, web portal Netease reported. Yang Xiaoyun, 65, said she planned to rehouse the dogs at her home at Tianjin, nearly 2500 kilometres away from the festival’s horrors.

Despite the outrage, the festival has proved popular among locals, who have queued outside places such as the Yulin No. 1 Crispy Dog Meat restaurant. The large eatery sells the freshly slaughtered animals for around $A8.20 a kilogram, the International Business Times reports.

A butcher prepares cuts of dog meat for sale in Yulin, in southern China’s Guangxi province, where the city’s annual Dog Meat Festival is underway despite international criticism. Picture: AFP
A butcher prepares cuts of dog meat for sale in Yulin, in southern China’s Guangxi province, where the city’s annual Dog Meat Festival is underway despite international criticism. Picture: AFP

Yulin, in Guangxi province in China’s south, holds the annual event to sell and eat dog meat on the summer solstice. This year, up to 10,000 canines are expected to be cooked up and served with lychees.

Eating dog is not illegal in China but Yulin’s government has tried to distance itself from the controversial festival.

“Some residents of Yulin have the habit of coming together to eat lychees and dog meat during the summer solstice,” the city’s news office wrote on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter equivalent.

“The ‘summer solstice lychee and dog meat festival’ is a commercial term, the city has never (officially) organised a dog meat festival.”

The Humane Society International (HSI) says thousands of dogs, many of them stolen pets, have been captured and transported over long distances under horrific conditions to Yulin.

“There, they’re held in crowded cages without food or water until they are killed,” the HSI says.

“Often, they are beaten and their throats are slit in front of other terrified animals.”

A man cleans dead dogs before they are chopped up for meat in Yulin. Picture: AFP
A man cleans dead dogs before they are chopped up for meat in Yulin. Picture: AFP

The HSI also said the festival did not reflect Chinese tradition, and started in 2010 as a way for dog meat traders to boost sales.

Most Chinese people were opposed to the festival, the charity added.

Xing Hai, a Chinese activist working with HSI, said: “I’m ashamed that around the world China has become famous for its animal cruelty, and Yulin in particular, and I want people to know that there are thousands of us here in China who are sickened by this cruelty too.

A stall selling slaughtered dogs in Yulin, where dog meat is eaten with lychees to celebrate the midsummer solstice. Picture: AFP
A stall selling slaughtered dogs in Yulin, where dog meat is eaten with lychees to celebrate the midsummer solstice. Picture: AFP

“This is not the China that we want, the old ways of treating animals have to end, Yulin is just the start.”

Others are concerned that the festival will increase the spread of rabies to humans, with infected dogs likely to be eaten.

This year’s Yulin Dog Meat Festival has attracted a heavy barrage of global criticism. Comedian Ricky Gervais, who is among the most high-profile critics, condemned the event on Twitter with the hashtag “#StopYuLin2015”.

A dog rescued by the Humane Society International from a Yulin slaughterhouse has been renamed Ricky in tribute to Gervais’ activism.

A Change.org petition calling for an end to the “inhumane” tradition has attracted more than 3.8 million signatures.

“This brutal ‘festival involves what some call savouring the ‘delights’ of dog meat hotpot, lychees, and strong liquor — which will increase the abduction of strays and pets and also increase the torturous & inhumane prisons of dog meat farms — places where man’s best friends are raised for such purposes,” the petition letter to China’s premier Li Keqiang and other Chinese politicians reads.

“Thousands of dogs will suffer, be butchered, beaten to death, skinned alive and eaten.”

Other commentators have suggested that outrage by those who ate other meats, such chicken or pork, was hypocritical.

HSI’s China Specialist Peter Li said eating dog hasn’t been “fashionable or decent” in China for hundreds of years.

“I was brought up in China, and like thousands of my fellow Chinese, I utterly reject the dog and cat meat trade and welcome the international attention it receives,” he said.

“Culture must never be allowed to be an excuse for cruelty to people or animals, and it is heartening to see so many young and passionate Chinese citizens challenging the old attitudes towards animals. The Yulin authorities would be advised to listen and shut down this event,” he said.

A woman sells dogs and cats by a street in Yulin, ahead of Yulin’s Dog Meat Festival. Picture: AFP
A woman sells dogs and cats by a street in Yulin, ahead of Yulin’s Dog Meat Festival. Picture: AFP
Animal activists use a dog to display a message that reads “Child for sale” in Yulin, where the city’s annual Dog Meat Festival is underway despite international criticism. Picture: AFP
Animal activists use a dog to display a message that reads “Child for sale” in Yulin, where the city’s annual Dog Meat Festival is underway despite international criticism. Picture: AFP
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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/world/asia/hundreds-of-animals-rescued-but-many-more-to-be-slaughtered-as-yulin-dog-meat-festival-gets-underway-in-china/news-story/d3b5fcbd6f87d4c2969ed80f0f853b8d