In spite of a massive online campaign, hundreds of dogs have been slaughtered, with thousands awaiting the same fate, as China went ahead Sunday with its highly-condemned and notorious annual 10-day Lychee and Dog Meat Festival, commonly known as the Yulin Dog Meat Festival. The country where coronavirus first emerged last December and spread throughout the world has failed to stop mass slaughter of animals, even as it is fighting hard to prevent a second wave of the pandemic.
Several petitions globally have urged the Chinese President Xi Jinping to save the puppies and stop the festival permanently.
"But the fact that these dogs are killed for consumption isn't even the worst part. Controversy surrounds every facet of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival. Many of the dogs that are killed are household pets abducted by vendors who want extra meat. Countless images show dogs still wearing collars being sent to slaughter. Many vendors believe that adrenaline makes the meat taste better, so the dogs are often instigated to the point of torture before they are killed. The dogs are then skinned alive and boiled alive. It's a horrifying and tragic experience," a petition mentioned.
🚨 LAST CHANCE 🚨: China’s annual #Yulin dog meat festival is less than a week away! Thousands of dogs and cats will endure terrible suffering before being slaughtered for their meat.
Please, SIGN to call for an end to this trade: https://t.co/T9577MElcy pic.twitter.com/lp5LZMK6ku
— Humane Society International (@HSIGlobal) June 16, 2020
#Activists do not expect the UK to Act. They have zero influence on animal welfare in Asia. @WHO @OIEAnimalHealth @FAODG know that China has created an office for animal welfare in Beijing,that zoonotic disease cause pandemics, #YulinDogMeatFestival is a risk to public health pic.twitter.com/BoF3SMrurq
— notodogmeat (@notodogmeat) June 18, 2021
#StopYulinDogmeatFestival
It's now in #China 💔 https://t.co/tQbZx7chyo pic.twitter.com/O3GfPmwpii— Phaedra (@PhaedraXTeddy) June 21, 2021
Since 2009 when it all started, thousands of residents gather around the time of summer solstice to enjoy dog meat together. Activists have mentioned how the dogs—stolen pets or strays taken from streets—are tortured, deprived of food and water before being slaughtered and enjoyed on the table by the Chinese.
"I do hope Yulin will change not only for the sake of the animals but also for the health and safety of its people. Allowing mass gatherings to trade in and consume dog meat in crowded markets and restaurants in the name of a festival poses a significant public health risk," international news agency Reuters quoted Peter Li, a China policy specialist with the Humane Society International, an animal rights group, as saying. Experts believe that Covid-19 virus, which has paralyzed the world, killing lakhs of human beings, may have originated in bats being sold in Wuhan's wet market, last year.
"Both live, terrified animals as well as bloody carcasses and rotting flesh were being peddled for human consumption. At multiple sites, investigators observed market goers walking around in flip-flops on floors covered with assorted bodily fluids and handling raw flesh and touching blood-streaked countertops without gloves. At two other markets, civet cats and bats were sold for food—even though they’re a reservoir species for severe acute respiratory syndrome (commonly known as SARS), another infamous, deadly coronavirus," a Peta investigation on live-animal markets operating from China to Cambodia mentioned recently. The world has come to a standstill but in Yulin, it is business as usual..
