By: Michelle Carr
Lately my attention has been drawn to a matter that has greatly sickened me. It is one of those things that you may have heard stories of but had hoped that it was not real. Because the mere thought of something like this happening was just too horrific to imagine. What am I referring to you ask? It’s an annual festival that is held in Yulin, China on June 21. A festival that has recently been denied but still continues to take place. Why does this festival bother me? Well it is because of the food they choose to eat at this festival. The main courses of this day include none other than the meat from dogs and cats. Yes, you read that right, dog and cats. This is not culture by any means, this is the slaughtering of innocent animals.
The Chinese lore behind this is that the eating dog meat during this inaugural day of summer will bring you good luck and health. Because of this thinking, they estimate that tens of thousands of dogs are killed for this day alone. This practice includes the rounding up of stray animals and sometimes even the kidnapping of beloved pets to sell in the market. Many animals are seen still wearing their collars as they are held in cages to be sold. Often times, they are caged with many others and with very little room to move. Trapped inside with no food or water, several die from shock, dehydration and starvation before they are even sold. And in some cases, the animals, in times of desperation, will turn on each other. If they are lucky enough to survive this, they are then subjected to other torturous acts that may include being beaten, shaved, butchered, skinned alive, and some dishes even require the poor animals to be boiled alive.
The demand of this meat also encourages dog meat farms where people trap, beat and torture the animals until the time arrives that they can be sold. These people are only after profit. They don’t see these defenseless animals that can become or are a member of one’s family. They ignore the whimpers and howls from the pain they cause. They see these innocents as nothing more than merely a product to be sold. Cash to line their pockets. Their conscious was checked at the door.
The secretary of the Yulin Food Service did say that the Yulin Dog Meat festival wouldn’t happen this year and that the government doesn’t endorse it. But the same thing was said the year past and even though the results were not as bad as before, thousands of animals still lost their lives. It seems that even though the announcement was made and restaurants removed the word dog from their signs, these activities still occurred. The acts still happened just on an undercover scale and without the title of a festival. The fact that the government is backing away from the festival, shows that the words of outrage from all over has had an impact. Many Chinese citizens are also appalled by these acts and are doing what they can to help put an end to it completely. A proposal for a ban has been sent to the National People’s Congress by NYC deputy Zheng Xiaohe. It has been reported that it had the support of 30 other NPC representatives. But it will be months before a formal reply could happen and it may not happen until after this year’s celebration.
We need to raise the awareness of this atrocious day. We need every voice we can get to express their rage and disgust. Because if we all speak loud enough for these precious creatures who can’t speak for themselves, we can save them. Together we can stop this from happening this year and ever year to come. Won’t you please join me in this fight? If you are an animal lover you must. Below I have included a link of multiple petitions that are being signed and set to help end this forever. Please sign all and share. SPREAD THE WORD! Let others who may not be aware of these acts know what is happening and how we can stop it! Together we can ban the eating of dogs and cats. Together we can BE THE CHANGE.
Petitions Link: https://sites.google.com/site/yulinpetitions/
Sources:
https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-people-s-republic-of-china-stop-the-yulin-dog-meat-eating-festival
http://time.com/2891222/china-dog-eating-festival/
https://www.thedodo.com/china-yulin-dog-meat-trade-1113447741.html
Credit to the owner- unknown