Blowing Water | The ritual slaughter of 100,000 animals at China’s Yulin Dog Meat Festival is abhorrent, cruel, and must be stopped forever
- Unimaginable that practice is allowed and even celebrated in southern province of Guangxi
- It is wrong to label event that is only in its 10th year a tradition
It is unimaginable to see that one of the most cruel human practices is still allowed in China and even “celebrated” under the guise of a festival.
The infamous annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival is now under way in the southern Chinese province of Guangxi, which is little more than 400km from Hong Kong. Even more unbelievable is that this abhorrent festival is now into its 10th year.
The current one, which began on June 21, will last for 10 horrifying days, during which up to 100,000 dogs, and sometimes cats, will be tortured and eaten. It is time to confront the realities of this cruel yearly custom, once more.
First, the brutal facts. It is estimated that around 25 to 30 million dogs are tortured and eaten every year in Asia. A large percentage of these animals are pets stolen from their owners. Some are abandoned pets that are sold to butchers while most are captured strays.
However, a piece of heart-warming news emerged ahead of this year’s festival; just a few days before it opened, animal activists in mainland China managed to rescue 62 sick and malnourished canines from a Yulin backstreet slaughterhouse.
