The Yulin Dog Meat Festival is once a year event which turns live dogs and cats into horrified torture displays of future meals. The massacre is allowed to continue by the local Chinese authorities despite numerous petitions and pleas.
It is a topic that we could not simply let slide even if our site is dedicated to more cheerful topics.
Around 10 000 dogs and cats were killed and eaten during the Yulin Dog Meat Festival this year, the Examiner reports. All the local authorities are doing is they are claiming the popularity of the “festival” is dropping each year.
We get it, every culture has different types of food. The Western countries eat cows, sheep and so on. But we strongly oppose displaying the animals, packing several of them tied up in to one tiny cage, alive and scared. If you see the atrocious images from this festival (they are too graphic for us to even consider publishing them), you will see this “festival” has nothing to do with celebrating the animals or even treating them with dignity.
It is a horrific display of animal cruelty which The Examiner rightfully calls a slaughter. The use of the word “tradition” is just a way to try to hide behind an excuse. It actuall started in the 1990s according to Time magazine, which is far from being a historical tradition. Every sane culture honors the animals used for food. It doesn’t torture them right up to the moment it kills them. What’s even worse, pictures show animals with collars in clear sign they have been stolen, the Examiner notes.
“Consumption of the dog and cat meat is said to bring good luck and health. That’s how the people who make their fortunes every year keep selling this slaughter to the public. Traditions such as cutting open live animals and using the entrails to “predict the future” were once used in ancient Rome and Babylonia. Such traditions fell out of favor two thousand years ago”, notes the Examiner.
In 2009, a law was drafted, intended to punish animal abusers with a 6000 yuan (over $900) fine and two weeks of detention. It also proposed that organizations found guilty of selling dog or cat meat be charged with a fine between 10,000 yuan ($1600) and 500,000 yuan ($80,000). To date, the National People’s Congress has not signed the law; it has yet to issue a statement on it, notes the publication.
“I will never forget the look of bewilderment and fear on the faces of those poor animals – the dogs and cats await a horrible fate. No animal deserves to be treated like this”, said Ricky Gervais on Twitter. He has been one of the most vocal opponents of the “festival”.
Amongst all of this horrible information there is a ray of light. A 65-year old woman goes every year to Yulin and spends over $1000 dollars to save 100 dogs from being tortured, killed and eaten, MSN reports. Yang Xiao Yun has a rescue center where she rehouses the dogs and seeks normal homes for them. Her rescue is called the Tianjin Stray Animal Rescue Center, also known as Common Home For All. Sadly she can’t can’t save all dogs so she needs help. The best thing would be if this “festival” is put to an end and actually honors the animals instead of torturing them.
Even worse, this is not the only such festival. Seoul, Korea has its own similar slaughter scheduled for later this year, called Sambok/Boknal, which means “three dog meat eating days” to fight the heat during the summer, the Examiner reports. The dates are based on the lunar calendar and they are on July 13, 23 and August 1 this year. It is said that a million dogs are slaughtered during this period out of 2 million dogs consumed every year. There is a group called SaveKoreaDogs, who already have plans in place for that protest.
