Chinese activists have rescued 68 dogs that were destined for Yulin dog meat festival.
The activists intercepted a truck headed for one of the Yulin slaughterhouses and found the 68 terrified animals on board. Having already endured a long road trip without food or water, the dogs were exhausted. Crammed tightly together in rusty wire cages in suffocating heat, panting and traumatised, many were in poor health. Some of the dogs showed signs that they were stolen family pets, such as clean, well cared-for teeth and offering their paws to the activists. Liang Jia is one of a new generation of activists in China who reflect a change in hearts and minds. She says the group had been waiting on authorities to set up checkpoints outside Yulin to stop inbound trucks and confiscate dogs, after a recent ruling by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs that dogs are companion animals and not “livestock” for eating. But after seeing truck after truck full of dogs passing them by, the activists couldn't stand by doing nothing any longer and flagged down the next approaching truck. After finding evidence that the dogs were stolen family pets for which the driver did not have the required paperwork, they persuaded him to hand over the dogs for rehoming. The dogs were taken to a temporary shelter to rest and recover and receive veterinary treatment. Now the pressure continues to eradicate the dog meat trade altogether. In 2010 approximately 15,000 dogs were killed during the core days of Yulin festival but campaigners have now reduced this number to around 3,000. However, many hundreds are also still killed in the weeks leading up to the festival. According to a 2017 survey conducted by Chinese state-registered charities and assisted by Yulin municipal government research staff, most people in China don't eat dog meat (around 70% never have) and more than half think the dog meat trade should be banned entirely. Two major cities in China, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, have banned the consumption of dog and cat meat but there are still 30 million dogs killed for their meat every year across Asia. However, as stunning and horrific as this figure is, it is still only a tiny fraction of the total number of animals killed for the meat trade worldwide. Pigs, for example, are every bit as sentient as dogs, feel pain just as dogs do, feel terror just as dogs do. Indeed, pigs are as intelligent as a three year old human toddler and there is no reason at all to believe they want to live any less than dogs do, yet they are killed in their hundreds of millions every year around the world. Cows, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys... the death toll is counted in billions, while fish and other sea animals are killed in such astronomical numbers that they cannot even be counted and are number in tons. So while we need to keep up the pressure against the Yulin festival and against the dog meat trade in general, we must also continue to campaign on behalf of all animals around the world, to fight against all cruelty and oppression and to spread the vegan message. Because, although it's easy for those of us who don't live in China to point the finger at Yulin and express moral outrage for a couple of weeks every June, we must not forget that we can have a much more direct and life-long influence by refusing to be a part of the wider animal agriculture industry. Being vegan makes a powerful impact and as more of us give up the consumption of meat and other animal products, we are creating a tsunami of compassion all around the world. If you are not yet vegan but care about animals enough that you want to make a difference, visit Challenge22.com and take that step. You won't regret it. |