From 21st June to 30th June, over ten thousand dogs will be captured, slaughtered and later eaten by Chinese folk in Yulin to celebrate what is known as the ‘Yulin Dog Meat Festival’. This year will mark its 10th anniversary of the event; where dog and cat meat, lychees and liquor are available. While eating dog meat is conventional in China, it is also widely known to the public that eating said meat in the summer can cure diseases. Over 10 million dogs are eaten in China, with Yulin only consuming 0.1% of them.
The festival is centred in the city of Yulin, a Guangxi province in China. It has attracted growing concern from the modern Chinese public over the brutality the dogs face, some even apparently stolen or grabbed from the street. The dogs are then poisoned and crammed into tiny cages sans food or water. Slaughtering the dogs is a cruel process where they are either electrocuted or hanged or cut open by the neck. Rumours have also gone around saying that the dogs are tortured and boiled alive to improve the flavour of the meat.
With negative media coverage from both nationally and internationally, Chinese animal activists and social media influencers took to writing a petition to the Yulin government for banning the event. It worked out for in 2014, the Yulin government removed the event’s official backing. However, there have been reports that document some locals who continue to consume lychees and dog meat during the summer solstice. While eradicating the dog meat festival in Yulin is possible, it’s just a small win for animal lovers out there.
This is because dog meat and cat meat are eaten all over China, it would be wrong to just ban on part of China and not the rest. While we can say that a lot of NGOs are actively seeking help by rescuing dogs and adopting them, it still won’t compensate for the latter half of dogs that will somehow find their ways into the clutches of dog meat handlers.
What we can do now, is turn to the help of the people and social media. We can try to actively stop dog meat consumption on a larger scale by educating the masses about its disadvantages, inclusive of emotion to go along with it. We can go on big groups on social media networks like Facebook especially, and spread the message. We can go to funds and charities and educate people on this form of animal cruelty and make it a mission; a mission for the dogs, a mission for humanity.
For social change to happen we need to take baby steps.
If you're interested to be apart of this change, help us raise the number of signs on this petition: https://action.hsi.org/page/40842/action/1?utm_campaign=dgmt-40842-19&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post-promoted&ea.tracking.id=BL19-dgmt-40842-19-facebook-post-promoted-static-lastchance-061419&fbclid=IwAR33sLAU8Awt9tlUQBCu-J3TCO5qOdhVaWsSWWCeXoCmp8UzduvIG5NvtRw