[h=1]Uproar over dog meat festival[/h]By Leeann Li | 2013-6-20
A FOLK festival dedicated to dog meat in southern China has triggered a public debate among its supporters and animal rights activists over whether to continue with the tradition or simply boycott it.
The annual festival begins tomorrow in Yulin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where locals have carried on the tradition to eat dog meat to celebrate the summer solstice. A citywide feast offers a variety of dog dishes.
It is reported that about 10,000 dogs are slaughtered during the festival each year, and that many are electrocuted, burned and skinned alive, according to UK-based Guardian newspaper.
Animal rights groups across the nation have swarmed into Yulin in an effort to save the dogs from tables. They distributed leaflets and hung banners on streets and markets, calling for "respecting life" and "feeling at ease only by not eating dogs."
Members of the Bo'ai Small Animal Protection Center have been protesting in Yulin since early this month, calling on the local government to cancel it, group founder Du Yufeng told AFP.
But some supporters of the festival, which features binge parties of dog meat and lychees dipped in liquor, said the dogs slaughtered are not pet dogs stolen from their owners, but dogs raised just like pigs and chicken.
However, according to an open letter written by the Hong Kong-based NGO Animals Asia, though dogs are raised by local farmers, many of the stuff consumed during the festival are stray dogs.
The letter claims some of them are transported into the city on filthy, overcrowded trucks, significantly increasing the risk of rabies and other contagious diseases, Guardian reported.
Trucks arriving in the city packed with dogs have taken measures to avoid being intercepted by animal lovers, Du said.
"We can't stop the trucks because they come at three or four in the morning, so we don't know about them," she said. But they had still managed to rescue dozens of dogs and hoped to find new homes for them.
But some local people have slammed the activists for their "declaration of war against their tradition." If slaughtering dogs was deemed cruel, "what about the slaughtering of chickens and pigs?"
"It is no less cruel. Would they just quit eating chicken and pork?" a netizen asked in an online post. "If you boycott the festival because of the slaughtered dogs, what about the traditional Spring Festival (when lot of birds and animals are slaughtered)?"
A FOLK festival dedicated to dog meat in southern China has triggered a public debate among its supporters and animal rights activists over whether to continue with the tradition or simply boycott it.
The annual festival begins tomorrow in Yulin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where locals have carried on the tradition to eat dog meat to celebrate the summer solstice. A citywide feast offers a variety of dog dishes.
It is reported that about 10,000 dogs are slaughtered during the festival each year, and that many are electrocuted, burned and skinned alive, according to UK-based Guardian newspaper.
Animal rights groups across the nation have swarmed into Yulin in an effort to save the dogs from tables. They distributed leaflets and hung banners on streets and markets, calling for "respecting life" and "feeling at ease only by not eating dogs."
Members of the Bo'ai Small Animal Protection Center have been protesting in Yulin since early this month, calling on the local government to cancel it, group founder Du Yufeng told AFP.
But some supporters of the festival, which features binge parties of dog meat and lychees dipped in liquor, said the dogs slaughtered are not pet dogs stolen from their owners, but dogs raised just like pigs and chicken.
However, according to an open letter written by the Hong Kong-based NGO Animals Asia, though dogs are raised by local farmers, many of the stuff consumed during the festival are stray dogs.
The letter claims some of them are transported into the city on filthy, overcrowded trucks, significantly increasing the risk of rabies and other contagious diseases, Guardian reported.
Trucks arriving in the city packed with dogs have taken measures to avoid being intercepted by animal lovers, Du said.
"We can't stop the trucks because they come at three or four in the morning, so we don't know about them," she said. But they had still managed to rescue dozens of dogs and hoped to find new homes for them.
But some local people have slammed the activists for their "declaration of war against their tradition." If slaughtering dogs was deemed cruel, "what about the slaughtering of chickens and pigs?"
"It is no less cruel. Would they just quit eating chicken and pork?" a netizen asked in an online post. "If you boycott the festival because of the slaughtered dogs, what about the traditional Spring Festival (when lot of birds and animals are slaughtered)?"
