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Beijing Dog Market Raided as Demand for Dog Meat Rises
Posted: 12/3/2014 10:52 am
The weather in Beijing is getting colder, and that means demand for dog meat for traditional hot pot is on the rise. Despite the growing interest, it’s getting harder for Beijing consumers to find dog meat as local officials crack down on markets that sell the product.
The latest was a raid on a live animal market operating illegally outside the Gaoliming market. Authorities managed to confiscate 20 live dogs that were destined for the dinner table. Apparently the market sells about ten dogs a day, each one fetching about RMB 700 each.
Eating dogs is not against the law in China. While it is frowned upon by an urban population that favors dog ownership, restaurants that offer dogs as part of their menu can be found all over the country, even in big metropolitan cities like Beijing.
According to the Chinese calendar, an important date to consume special tonics to prepare for winter is drawing near. Dogs occupy a special place in Chinese food and medicine in that their meat is considered to provide warmth to people that eat them.
China’s first astronaut Yang Liwei was given a diet that included dog in order to better keep warm during his mission.
The dog meat restaurant in Guangzhou, left, is now a shop. Photo: SCMP Pictures
One of the most popular dog restaurants in Guangzhou has closed after the local government tightened regulation of the eateries and a fall in demand for the meat, according to a newspaper report.
The Sunshine Restaurant, which started to offer dog meat dishes in Huifu West Road in 1963, has shut down and its site has been taken by a shop, the Guangzhou Daily reported.
Other restaurants that used to cook dog and cat dishes in the Yuancun and Panyu districts of the city have also stopped this year, the newspaper said.
“More and more people have realised the importance of protecting animals and refuse to eat dog meat,” one Guangzhou citizen was quoted as saying.
Guangzhou’s food quality watchdogs have warned people not to eat dog meat on safety grounds and plan to tighten the inspection of quarantine certificates and the sources of the meat in the city.
The Sunshine Restaurant’s founder said he started the business in 1960s when city government encouraged people to run restaurants catering to local tastes.
The restaurant was given an award for its “famous Chinese dish” by the city government in 2000.
The eatery was often visited by foreigners from Japan and South Korea, particularly during the annual Canton trade fair.
Dog meat has traditionally been eaten in areas of southern China and is also a cooked in countries such as Vietnam and South Korea.
China's annual dog meat festival under growing pressure as 200,000 sign petition
China loses appetite for dog in the face of growing international pressure against organisers of Yulin Dog and Cat Meat festival
A still from the YouTube video leading the petition launched by Duo Duo
By Charlotte Middlehurst, Shanghai
12:28PM BST 02 Jun 2015
The world's biggest dog meat festival in China is under pressure to shut down following record complaints from Chinese and international animal welfare organisations.
The organisers of Yulin Dog and Cat Meat festival, where an estimated 10,000 dogs are slaughtered each year, are the target of a petition on the website change.org that has so far received more than 200,000 signatures.
The petition launched by Duo Duo, a US animal protection agency, addressed Yulin’s governor, Mr Chen Wu.
It included a YouTube video that has been viewed more than 130,000 times - but is not accessible in China, where YouTube is blocked.
A quarter of a million tweets have been posted using the hashtag #StopYulin2015.
The annual festival held in Guangxi province in southern China takes place on the summer solstice. Each year thousands of dogs are killed - some are electrocuted, burned and skinned while alive and conscious.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, dog meat is an effective treatment for disease and impotence in men – eating it also dispels ghosts, according to traditional.
The Guangdong Shoushan Volunteer Centre estimates the figure of 10,000 dogs killed is too low and that 40,000 is more accurate.
Last year, the Yulin local government authorities promised to shut down the festival following complaints over the intense cruelty of the animals’ treatment.
However, the festival appeared set to continue as normal, according to an investigation by the Human Society International (HSI).
Since then the campaign has gained steam. In March, the National People’s Congress deputy, Zheng Xiaohe, delivered the proposal banning the slaughter and consumption of cats and dogs to the National People’s Congress, the annual meetings of China’s top political advisory bodies, with a response expected in the coming months.
Again this year, Li Jun Qing, head of Yulin's Food And Drug Administration, has pledged to enforce the proposed ban. However, his words ring hollow with campaigners following last year's failure to act.
In recent years, the treatment of dogs has courted increasing outrage from Chinese animals lovers. At last year’s festival, a vendor held a live dog from a noose, threatening to kill it unless activists paid him an exorbitant ransom, causing shock and anger online.
In December 2014, a golden retriever was stolen from its owner's home, sold to a restaurant and reportedly skinned alive in Shuangyashan city, in northern Heilongjiang province.
After images surfaced on Weibo of the dog lying on a bloodstained pavement, a group of angry citizens confronted the restaurant owner, who later removed the shop's plaque and closed the place down, according to state media.
Rising concern over the risk of dog meat consumption to humans has led to more people shunning the food. In Guangzhou province, next to Guangxi, food safety authorities have tightened the inspection of quarantine certificates and dog sourcing in the city.
Last month, Li Jun Qing, head of Yulin's Food And Drug Administration, said the government does not endorse the festival and that it will not be taking place this year. However, his words have run hollow with campaigners who note the same assurances were made last year with little effect.
Vendors in Yulin say they only sell "edible dogs" that are bred like other livestock. Numerous media reports in recent years have highlighted the illegal hunting and slaughter of stray dogs.
In June 2014, the Global Times reported on a Sina News survey of over 50,000 people, which showed that 60 per cent of respondents do not agree with the protest as eating dog meat is not against any laws and the activists should not interfere with others' rights or tradition.
Earlier this year, a ban on dog and cat slaughter for meat was proposed in China. The ban proposal was delivered to the National People's Congress by the NPC deputy, Zheng Xiaohe. A formal reply is expected in the coming few months.
Chinese Yulin Dog Meat Festival: Netizens rally in defence of event that will see 10,000 cats and dogs slaughtered
Vendors of the meat are preparing for huge protests as the meat festival kicks off this weekend
Jamie Fullerton
Beijing
Wednesday 17 June 2015
When Peter Li visited a slaughterhouse on the edge of Yulin in China’s Shaanxi province, the first thing to hit him was the mixed stench of dirty water, dog hair, blood and blow-torched skin.
Mr Li, animal activist group Humane Society International’s China specialist, had arrived at 6.30am to find that the day’s main slaughtering session was already finished. The internal organs piled on the grubby floor were evidence of this. “I saw cat and dog intestines and carcasses strung up,” he says. “Workers were blow-torching the carcasses to make them shiny and ready for shipment to restaurants. There were some dogs still alive in wire cages, but they looked exhausted, emaciated and dirty.”
There has been much international condemnation of the annual so-called dog meat festival in Yulin. The event is in fact the city’s summer solstice festival, and will take place on the weekend of 21 and 22 June. Traditionally some 10,000 dogs and, more recently cats, are slaughtered for consumption at the event, all washed down with gallons of lychee wine.
An unprecedented global social media campaign has taken off in the last few weeks: the Twitter hashtag #stopyulin2015 has been used hundreds of thousands of times this year and a Facebook group, Stop Yulin Dog & Cat Meat Festival 2015, has more than 17,000 “likes”. A Change.org petition against the event by the US animal rights group Duo Duo closed after attracting more than 200,000 signatures.
Yet the pressure such campaigns exert on Chinese authorities is slight, limited both by the government’s dismissive attitude towards outside opinion and by the fact that Twitter and Facebook are both blocked in the country. Furthermore, there has been a backlash from Chinese “netizens” – Chinese slang for online citizens – against finger-wagging foreigners.
As the industry is largely unregulated, estimates about the amount of dog meat consumed in China are uncertain. (Getty)
“Dog-meat eating is a custom belonging to other people, the same way that people of the Islamic Hui ethnic group doesn’t eat pork,” one netizen wrote. “They won’t protest us for eating pork. We should mutually respect each other. If you don’t want to eat something, then don’t.” Another wrote: “Let’s all protest the Christmas practice of eating turkey!”
The June dog-meat eating custom in Yulin began in the 1990s, but the consumption of dogs in China is thought to predate written history. In the rural south, dog meat is eaten mainly by members of the older generations, and according to superstition it has strong heating qualities, making it popular in the winter - often eaten as part of a steaming hot-pot.
As the industry is largely unregulated, estimates about the amount of dog meat consumed in China are uncertain. However, Hong Kong-based NGO Animals Asia has released a report based on a four-year investigation in which it claimed hat up to 10 million dogs are slaughtered in China for consumption each year. The group said that few of the dogs were raised by meat suppliers, with most being bought or, as some protesters have claimed, stolen.
Two kitchen knives are shown stuck in an iron cage, which are used to butcher dozens of dogs and cats every day. These knives have to be sharpened daily due to the number of animals they're used to slaughter Two kitchen knives are shown stuck in an iron cage, which are used to butcher dozens of dogs and cats every day. These knives have to be sharpened daily due to the number of animals they're used to slaughter
In recent years protest within China against the dog-meating tradition has been fuelled by campaigns on Chinese rather than international social media. Around 350,000 people have taken part in an online discussion forum about the festival on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. Anti-government messages and images are heavily-censored on Weibo, but while protest against human rights abuse or pro-democracy views are crushed, animal activism is allowed.
The discussion features arguments both for and against eating dog meat, and has sparked the mobilisation of activists across the country, many of whom had never heard of the Yulin event before reading about it on social media.
One activist, who asked to be identified only by his surname, Hao, works with the Small Animal Protection Association in the city of Xi’an, northeast China. He has attended the Yulin event twice, to lobby the local government and protest against sellers.
“I wouldn’t know about it if it weren’t for the recent rise of social media here,” he told the Independent. “Now we have QQ and WeChat [both online messaging services] to spread news. Last year many volunteers connected with us and travelled to Yulin to join our protests.”
Workers are shown getting the day's dog and cat meat prepared for sale in the morning Workers are shown getting the day's dog and cat meat prepared for sale in the morning
In 2011 a huge social media campaign contributed to the banning of a similar dog meat festival in Qianxi Township in Jinhua City, Zhejiang province. The event had taken place regularly for around 600 years and was based on military folklore. According to legend, a Ming Dynasty military victory in the 14th century was aided by soldiers killing the township’s dogs so their barking wouldn’t give their presence away.
An activist from animal rights group Guangdong Best Volunteering Centre, who posts online under the name Shan Dai, said that her organisation reached more government officials through social media, aiding their lobbying efforts. “A post about the festival I made was forwarded 6,000 times,” she says. “So many netizens protested that eventually the local government acted resolutely. Sadly, in Yulin the local government has weak awareness of animal protection.”
It is likelier, in fact, that the Yulin local government is more interested in self-preservation than in animal protection. The municipal authorities used to endorse the festival but as protests grew they backed off, declaring it no longer an “official” event. They have, however, clamped down on dogs being slaughtered in public, resulting in slaughterhouses being moved to inconspicuous locations.
There were scuffles between protesters and vendors in Yulin last June, causing many restaurant owners to remove dog meat from their menus to avoid attention. “One dog meat seller in a market ran at us with a knife when we tried to take photos last year,” says Mr Hao.
A dog waits to be sold for meat in a market in Yulin, in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. A dog waits to be sold for meat in a market in Yulin, in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The efforts of the likes of Mr Hao and Ms Shan are working, with the dog meat industry beginning to decline. Last year some Yulin restaurants put donkey meat on their menus to replace dog meat. Meanwhile in Guangzhou in Guangdong province Sunshine Restaurant, which had been serving dog meat in the southern city since 1963, closed down due to lack of demand.
Food quality watchdogs in the city warned the public not to eat dog meat and checks of meat sources are being intensified. Nationally Zheng Xiaohe, a member of the National People’s Congress political advisory body, proposed at its annual meeting a ban the slaughter and consumption of cats and dogs. The legalities of selling dog meat are already hazy, with many protesters claiming public health violations.
Objectors also claim that many dogs sold for food are stolen domestic pets, and last year apprehended a series of dog transport trucks in various locations. Often the canines on board were rescued after activists proved the sellers did not have valid food industry licenses.
“One lady who owned a slaughterhouse told me that her teenage son had questioned her about why she couldn’t just do another job instead, considering all the pressure from activists,” Mr Li said. “She replied, ‘It’s our livelihood – do you think we enjoy it? Absolutely not, but it’s just what we know how to do.’” (AP Photo/Humane Society International, File)
The public image of dog meat vendors as bloodthirsty, cleaver-wielding puppy-killers has aided this downturn, but many say it’s unfair. Mr Li said he met five dog-meat industry workers in Yulin to challenge them on their career choices.
“One lady who owned a slaughterhouse told me that her teenage son had questioned her about why she couldn’t just do another job instead, considering all the pressure from activists,” Mr Li said. “She replied, ‘It’s our livelihood – do you think we enjoy it? Absolutely not, but it’s just what we know how to do.’”
Ms Shan believes that the Yulin event will continue for around another five years before activist pressure gets too great and a closure is forced. Until that point she’ll be returning every year, fuelled by the killings she continues to witness.
“I’ve seen vendors dragging dogs around before smashing their heads with hammers but not killing them, saying this helps keep the meat more fresh,” she said. “As long as this continues, we’ll be back every year.”
The local dog meat workers may be struggling against the downturn, but they’ll still be prepared for the moment when protests turn physical again this weekend. For many, it is simply about protecting their livelihood from people they view as out-of-towners who don’t understand their customs.
“With more activists than ever set to converge, there could be conflict again,” says Mr Li. “The slaughterhouse owner I spoke to said that some dog meat workers from other cities would be coming to Yulin to beef up support. She said that for the past four years there have been protesters standing in front of her store, but this time she’s prepared to fight back.”
Thousands of dogs and cats slaughtered at China festival despite government promises to crack down
Sellers kept the dogs dozens to a cage before electrocuting and skinned them alive, before serving them with lychee
Dogs are kept in a cage at Dashichang dog market ahead of a local dog meat festival in Yulin Photo: Reuters
By Charlotte Middlehurst, Shanghai
4:09PM BST 21 Jun 2015
Thousands of cats and dogs have been slaughtered at the Yulin Festival despite government promises to end the practice which has been condemned internationally on grounds of animal cruelty.
Hundreds of traders gathered in China’s southern Guangxi province on Sunday for the annual feast where dogs are served with lychees to mark the summer solstice.
Local authorities failed to honour pledges to ban the festival following an online petition signed by half a million people.
Hundreds of thousands of tweets have been posted using the hashtag #StopYulin2015.
Actor Ricky Gervais and Leona Lewis, the singer, have denounced the festival, where every year animals are kept dozens to a cage before being electrocuted, burned and skinned while alive and conscious.
Vendors wait for customers as dogs are kept in a cage at Dashichang dog market (Reuters)
On Sunday, campaigners blockaded streets, raided slaughterhouses and bought animals in an attempt to save them from the cooking pot.
“Workers were blow-torching the carcasses to make them shiny and ready for shipment to restaurants," said Peter Li, a campaigner for the Humane Society China, adding. "There were some dogs still alive in wire cages, but they looked exhausted, emaciated and dirty.”
One 65 year-old Chinese woman, Yang Xiaoyun, was among the animal lovers who turned up rescue those still alive. Ms Yang paid roughly 7,000 Yuan (£720) to save 100 dogs.
Andrea Gung executive director of the Duo Duo Animal Welfare Project and videographer Eric Peltier stayed up through the night to save the animals and document their conditions but were chased away from by angry locals brandishing sticks had entrails thrown at them.
Last year, Yulin’s government announced plans to ban public slaughter and advertising using words “dog meat,” amid public outcry. However, business went ahead as usual for many vendors, although there were reports that the festival had been scaled back.
Dogs and cats which were purchased by animal right activists in order to rescue them from dog dealers (Reuters)
Officially, 10,000 dogs and 4,000 cats were killed in 2014 but DuoDuo estimates the figure at around 40,000 dogs and 10,000 cats.
In March, Li Jun Qing, head of Yulin's Food And Drug Administration, reinstated that the government did not endorse the festival.
The slaughter of cats and dogs for meat is not outlawed in China. Food safety regulators have increasingly spoken out about the health risks.
Many of the "meat dogs" in the country are stolen pets and strays, according to an investigation published this month by Hong Kong-based charity Animals Asia.
The festival was started by the city’s dog meat traders in 2009-2010.
Yang Xiaoyun buying dogs in Yulin. Photo: SCMP Pictures
A woman in China has paid over US$1,000 to save 100 animals from being eaten during a dog meat festival, media reported, as activists have criticised the event, labelling it as cruel.
Animal-loving Yang Xiaoyun paid about 7,000 yuan (HK$8,800) to save about 100 dogs in the southern city of Yulin on Saturday, the news website Netease reported.
The city in the Guangxi region holds an annual festival devoted to the animal’s meat on the summer solstice, which has provoked an increasing backlash from animal protection activists.
Reports said that Yang, 65, plans to re-house the dogs at her home nearly 2,000 km away in Tianjin.
Pictures posted online showed her browsing a market in Yulin where the dogs were kept in cages.
Activists have in the past travelled to the city to hold demonstrations, sometimes buying dogs to save them from the cooking pots.
Local people have been quoted as saying that animals are killed in a humane way for the festival, where their meat is then served with lychees.
The majority of “meat dogs” in the country are stolen pets and strays, according to an investigation published this month by the Hong Kong-based charity Animals Asia, although eating dog is unusual in most parts of China.
About 30 million households in the country are estimated to keep dogs as pets, helping to fuel the growing animal rights movement.
The city’s government has tried to distance itself from the event.
“Some residents of Yulin have the habit of coming together to eat lychees and dog meat during the summer solstice,” the city’s news office wrote on social media.
“The ‘summer solstice lychee and dog meat festival’ is a commercial term, the city has never [officially] organised a dog meat festival,” it said.
Eating dog is not illegal in China, but the government called on meat vendors to respect food safety laws.
“Yulin is an open, tolerant and civilised city,” it said. “We welcome people across the world to pay attention to Yulin.”
This year the festival has been targeted by British Comedian Ricky Gervais, who posted a series of messages on Twitter with the hashtag “StopYuLin2015”.
A woman eats dog meat at a festival in Yulin, Guangxi. Photo: Reuters
Dog-hunters in Zhejiang province have been prosecuted by the authorities last week for selling over 3500 kilograms of poisoned dog meat, most of which have made their way to restaurants.
Police investigations uncovered three dog-hunting gangs in Anji county who would intentionally poison dogs in local villages with sodium cyanide, and then sell them for dog meat, in what has become Anji county’s largest food safety problem, local media reports say.
Last week, authorities in Anji county pressed charges against suspect Zheng Taixiang, Zeng Wusi and nine others for the illegal possession and sale of toxic substances and the sale of toxic foodstuffs. Suspects who helped them sell poisoned dog meat were also prosecuted.
Police in Anji county were first tipped off that a local village in Dipu reported a series of missing dogs, which led villagers to believe that the dogs had been stolen.
Between 2013 and last year, the suspects stole and poisoned about 25 dogs from multiple villages by feeding them chicken bones laced with poison, which would kill the dogs in seconds. Retailers would then purchase the meat despite being aware that the dog meat was poisonous.
Authorities seized almost 10 kilograms of sodium cyanide and about 150 dead dogs in the investigation. Of the 3500 kilograms of meat that had been sold, the majority were sold to restaurants. The meat was also found outside of Anji in Changxing county and Linan city.
There has been no reported cases of food safety incidents caused by the poisoned dog meat thus far, but the prosecutor handling the case has stressed that the toxic meat cannot be taken lightly.
Dog meat is consumed mostly in southern China, in Hunan and in cities in Zhejiang, Guangxi and Guangdown provinces.
Yulin town in Guangxi holds an annual dog meat festival that has drawn much controversy both nationally and around the globe. The festival has faced pressure and scrutiny from animal rights groups and animal lovers, who have been campaigning to end such festivities.
