The Yulin Dog Meat Festival (also known as the Lychee and Dog Meat Festival) is an annual celebration held during the summer solstice in Yulin, China. Those who attend traditionally consume dog meat and lychees.
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The festival, which starts tomorrow, lasts ten days and it's estimated that around 10,000-15,000 dogs are eaten during this time.
The eating of dog meat began 400 years ago in China because it was thought that this particular food would help to reduce the heat felt throughout the summer months. With that said, the festival only began a few years back.
During the festivities, the dogs are confined in wooden crates and metal cages and then skinned alive and cooked for human consumption.
The event has been heavily criticised by animal welfare supporters following the release of pictures and video footage exposing some of the practices. An American witness who visited allegedly saw that some of the dogs wore collars and assumed that they had been taken from their homes. (Wikipedia)
While, the images and videos may shock us, PETA Director Mimi Bekhechi notes- this shouldn't happen to dogs but it shouldn't happen to any other animal either:
'The Yulin dog-meat festival is condemned internationally and by many people in China itself these days because, for most of us, the idea of killing, cooking and eating dogs - animals we know and love - is revolting.
Of course, there's no rational reason why the idea of dismembering and devouring any animal shouldn't elicit the same revulsion - especially when animals killed for the table in Britain face horrors just like those the dogs in Yulin experience.
During the festival, which lasts 10 days, up to 15,000 dogs will be bludgeoned and gutted, while during the same 10-day span, nearly 29 million terrified animals will be killed here to satisfy British appetites.
Whether a dog, a pig, a chicken or a fish, no animal wants to suffer and die for our plates, and we urge everyone to condemn the slaughter of animals for meat.'
Source: Wikipedia
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