Today, June 22, in Yulin, a city in the autonomous region of Guangxi, in China, is the day of the summer solstice dog meat festival.
This year, as in previous years, the entire world is working together to stop this barbarian festival.
It’s called a festival, but it’s hard to use this word to describe the killing of thousands of dogs each day. According to Animals Asia Foundation, during this event about two thousand dogs are slaughtered per day, with the purpose of eating their meat. Dog meat is considered a delicacy in some regions of China.
This is a very bloody event. Most of the animals slaughtered are picked from the streets or stolen from their owners by criminal gangs, transported and kept in tiny, overcrowded cages and then cruelly killed. As they are violently crammed together in minuscule cages and forced to travel in this manner for several days, several are dead by the time they reach their destination.
The Web is full of videos depicting this cruelty, of images that show us how much suffering these poor animals have to endure.
Animals Asia Foundation, as well as several other smaller associations, has for years now been asking dog meat sellers from Yulin to stop the illegal capture and the torture of these dogs, with the additional motivation of protecting consumers from the risks derived from the ingestion of meat of sick, poisoned animals.
We wholeheartedly hope that this year the Yulin inhumane, immoral festival will not take place. Because dogs are our best friends, not our food.