Dog Meat Festival in China: The Same Old Massacre

CHINA DOG MEAT FESTIVAL

Every year, starting on June 21st, the horror of the Dog Meat Festival unfolds for ten consecutive days in Yulin, China: a massacre of over 10 animals, brutally killed and then eaten. It's a deliberately horrific slaughter: there's the absurd belief that terrorizing dogs before killing them makes their meat tastier, more tender, and sweeter.

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YULIN CHINA FESTIVAL

A spectacle of inhumanity and incivility that is repeated every year in China, despite the worldwide indignation, the protests and the numerous petitions calling for this terrible massacre to be stopped.

THE DOG MASSACRE DURING THE YULIN FESTIVAL

Most of the dogs sold during the Festival come from the black market. A huge number of dogs captured and killed are in fact domestic animals stolen from their familiesDuring long journeys they are transported piled up on top of each other in terrible conditions, without water or food. Among the dogs killed and sold there are therefore also sick or poisonedThis also highlights a health problem that should help put an end to this terrible festival and legally ban the consumption of dog meat. As the Chinese Ministry of Health has noted, approximately 2-3 people die from the rabies virus in the country every year.

CHINESE PEOPLE IN FAVOR OF DOG MASSACRE

The protests against the annual dog slaughter in China, which feels like the Middle Ages, have no parallel in a country where this tradition is deeply rooted and cherished by its citizens. Only one in five Chinese is against the slaughter, and 24 percent of families eat dog or cat meat at least once a week. The data comes from a survey commissioned by the Humane Society International (HSI), which has been fighting for years against these rituals and the illegal animal trade so widespread in several Asian countries, starting, of course, with China.

HOW TO STOP THE DOG MEAT FESTIVAL

Faced with such discouraging data, we can only rely on the ability to strengthen the battle against the Dog Meat Festival everywhere—in international organizations, in Western public opinion, and in dissenting circles in China. At the forefront of this fight against Action Project Animal There's also the Italian Davide Acito. The centuries-old tradition of meat consumption in China must be shelved without any ifs or buts: culture, in fact, is never a good reason to justify so much cruelty and horror.

Cover image credits: Paul Vasarhelyi – Shutterstock

Source of images inserted in the text: Getty Images

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