https://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/Utility/GetImage.ashx?ImageID=10cdfd84-99ba-41d6-bb4d-f5ecc6f9e25c&refreshStamp=0
Across China, there are many dog markets and slaughterhouses, and dogs and cats are killed for human consumption all year round and country-wide. While the annual dog meat “festival” in Yulin in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has come to symbolize the immense cruelty of the wider dog and cat meat trade, it is important to remember that 10 million dogs and 4 million cats suffer for the trade across China every year.
The “Yulin Lychee and Dog Meat Festival” was launched in 2010 by Yulin’s dog meat traders as a commercial enterprise to boost their flagging sales. Previously, Yulin city had never known a dog meat festival and there was no established tradition of dog eating there; the traders tried to co-opt the idea of local tradition in order to legitimize the event.
The festival takes place every year starting on June 21st (the summer solstice), and sees thousands of dogs and cats —many, stolen pets still wearing their collars—killed for their meat. Local officials originally endorsed the event, expecting it to attract tourists. Instead, the festival has been a PR disaster for Yulin, earning domestic and international condemnation.
The festival is a barbaric spectacle, but the suffering actually starts much earlier. Thousands of dogs and cats are grabbed from the streets, crammed tightly into wire cages and piled onto trucks to be driven for days or weeks. They come from as far as Anhui, Hubei and Henan in Central China, up to 1,500 miles away.
Denied food, water and comfort, those dogs stacked at the bottom of the truck become drenched in urine and faeces, while those in the middle can suffocate to death. Others die from illness, dehydration or heatstroke long before they reach their destination.
Uploading and unloading of dogs and cats is violent, with cages routinely hurled up to the truck and smashed down at unloading. Bodily injuries from sharp wire, biting, and rough handling cause further pain.
At the slaughterhouse, they will be beaten to death with metal poles.
Too bad the border is closed... I'd love to go! (sarc...)