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Animal advocates bound dogmeat lovers

By Lu Feiran | June 26, 2015, Friday | Online Edition

THE French eat horse meat. Australians eat kangaroo. Icelanders eat smoked sheep’s head. Different cultures, different tastes. But when it comes to “man’s best friend,” tolerance breaks down.

Koreans for years have suffered global criticism for national dishes featuring dog meat, and a small city in southern China isn’t far behind on the outrage meter.

The city of Yulin in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has held the Dog Meat Festival every summer solstice for the past six years.

Dog lovers are up in arms. Animal welfare activists descended on the city to protest. Armed police were dispatched to protect dog meat sellers from possible violence.

“The live animal markets were in full swing, and we saw the now familiar but sad sight of dogs, cats, puppies and kittens crammed into tiny cages and left fully exposed in the hot sun without water or shade,” said Adam Parascandola, an activist with the UK-based Human Society International.

Parascandola said he visited a dog slaughterhouse where canines were brutally beaten to death with clubs. Their howls pierced the silence of the early morning hours, he said.

About 10,000 dogs are slaughtered for the festival every year. The source of the dogs is the main controversy.

Activists said many of the dogs are stolen pets. Dog meat dealers deny that.

“We raise the dogs ourselves,” said Wang Dehui, a Yulin resident. “A dog can give birth to up to eight puppies at one time, so Yulin actually has enough dogs for the festival. There are no national laws banning the slaughter or consumption of dogs, so why should we be accused of anything?”

But activists beg to differ.

“I could easily see that many of these poor animals were still wearing collars and were most likely pets stolen from other towns and cities,” said Parascandola.

Despite the strong feelings, this year’s festival passed without violence. Activists tried to rescue dogs from slaughter by buying them from vendors.

Yang Xiaoyun, an activist from Tianjin, spent around 7,000 yuan (US$1,128) rescuing more than 100 dogs and cats. Hao Wei, an activist from Shaanxi Province, saved five dogs and two cats from becoming table fare.

“Many of the animals here have skin diseases and other problems,” said Hao. “The government should do something with regard to food safety here.”

Earlier this month, the Animals Asia Foundation released a report on the source of dog meat in China. It said four years of research and field surveys found that dog meat in China is usually illegal and unsafe.

The foundation said the number of dog-raising facilities in China was too small to provide meat on a scale to satisfy the Yulin festival much less the nation as a whole.

According to the report, it is highly likely that more than 10 million dogs are eaten every year in China.

“Our investigations strongly point to what everybody familiar with the industry has long suspected — that the vast majority of China’s dog meat comes from stolen pets and that misinformation and illegality is rife at every stage of the industry supply chain,” said Jill Robinson, founder of Animals Asia Foundation.

The report also quoted Xia Zhaofei, a professor with the China Agriculture University, saying that it would be very difficult to develop a legal dog-meat slaughtering industry.

“Although technically possible, it would be highly risky and costly to run such plants,” said Xia. “And the dog meat coming from such plants would cost more than 100 yuan per 500 grams.”

At present, the market price of dog meat ranges between 6.5 yuan and 23 yuan per half kilo.

Several companies specializing in dog meat products have had to close down because of high costs.

“We found that the bigger dogs grew, the more diseases they developed,” said an unidentified worker at the Fankuai Dog Meat Products in Zhejiang Province. “The price of raising the dogs was higher than the market price of dog meat.”

The foundation said rural areas are the main target of dog thieves, and dogs going to dinner tables are rarely vaccinated.

“This is why calls for regulating the cat and dog meat industry are completely misguided,” said Irene Feng, cat and dog welfare director of the UK animal rights’ organization. “The trade cannot be legitimized because it can only ever survive as an industry characterized by criminality and cruelty.”

The Yulin government has chosen to remain pretty low key on the debate over the dog meat festival. It has, however, issued several regulations aimed at appeasing detractors. Slaughtering dogs on the street is banned. Civil servants are not allowed to participate in the dog meat festival. Restaurants selling dog meat are required to cover up the character “鐙” (dog) on their signs.

The Human Society International said it’s gratifying to see the number of younger Chinese activists who have joined the cause. The organization encourages them to work with government officials to seek a solution to the dog meat trade.

Peter Li, a China specialist with the organization, said he refuses to accept the contention that eating dogs is part of China’s cultural tradition.

“It isn’t Chinese tradition to brutalize animals in this way,” he said. “I was brought up in China, and eating dogs hasn’t been considered fashionable or decent in the country for more than a thousand years.”

The specialist said “culture” must never be used as an excuse for cruelty to people or animals.

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