Help Animals Like Those Suffering in the Yulin Dog-Eating Festival
You’ve probably seen images of dogs crammed together in tiny cages, waiting to be cruelly bludgeoned and killed and then used for food or turned into pieces of clothing.
Most Australians can’t help but feel sickened by what goes on at the Yulin “festival” in China each year. Here are a few steps that you can take to help animals like the ones in the picture above.
Leave Cruelty off Your Plate
Killing, cooking, and eating dogs and cats is unthinkable to most of us, because they’re our family members and our best friends. We can imagine the fear that they feel when they’re caged with other animals and the agony that follows when they’re bludgeoned or even skinned alive before being turned into pieces of meat.
But you don’t need to travel all the way to Yulin to find such cruelty.
All over the world, intelligent and sensitive animals are tortured and killed for food. For example, pigs can be smarter than dogs, yet it’s standard practice for mother pigs to be so intensely confined that they lose their minds and for workers to cut off piglets’ teeth, testicles, and part of their tails without any painkillers. In abattoirs, it’s common for chickens– who are social and inquisitive animals by nature – to be conscious when they’re plunged into scalding-hot water, much like the animals at the Yulin festival are. In reality, the dogs and cats we cry for there are no different from the pigs, cows, chickens, and other animals eaten by many people here. The best way to stop the killing of dogs, cats, and other animals for food is to practice compassion for all beings. Make a lifesaving decision by ordering one of PETA’s free vegan starter kits.
Education Is Key
Many Chinese citizens oppose the Yulin festival, and PETA Asia is working hard to urge the next generation to condemn the slaughter of animals for meat, because whether a dog, a pig, a chicken, or a fish, no animal wants to suffer and die to be on our dinner plates.
Grassroots work is essential to the success of the animal rights movement, and PETA Asia works closely with local activists and groups throughout China. Some efforts to promote public education in the country include the creation of PETA Asia’s Chinese language website, the maintenance of our hugely popular Chinese social media accounts, and the distribution of Chinese leaflets – on topics ranging from vegan living to fur to zoos – that are given to local groups and activists free of charge. PETA Asia visits schools and universities, has information tables at events, and partners with companies to inform people about the need to make compassionate choices.
As more and more young people learn about cruelty to animals and the ways in which they can stop supporting it, there’s great hope for the future of all animals. PETA Asia’s work in China is changing hearts and minds.
Are You Unknowingly Supporting the Yulin Dog-Eating Festival?
One of the ways in which Yulin and the dog meat industry make money is by selling and using dogs’ skin. A deeply disturbing investigation revealed that dogs are bludgeoned and killed so that their skin can be turned into leather gloves, belts, jacket collar trim, cat toys, and other items. At an abattoir, the investigator filmed workers as they grabbed one dog after another around the neck with metal pincers and bashed them over the head with a wooden pole. Some dogs fell unconscious, while others cried out and writhed in agony. Some still struggled to breathe after their throats were cut before their skins were ripped from their bodies. Dogs who were next in line for slaughter barked and wailed as a worker hit them in order to make them walk more slowly. One employee told the investigator that this facility bludgeons and skins 100 to 200 dogs a day. When this video was shot, there were about 300 live dogs in the compound slated for slaughter. Dogs suffer not just during the Yulin festival but all year long in the leather industry.
Products made from dog leather are exported throughout the world to be sold to unsuspecting customers. So if you buy leather, remember: there’s no easy way to tell whose skin you’re really in. The best way to stop the killing of dogs in China is to stop the demand for their skin internationally.
Contact Your Local Chinese Embassy
Cruelty like that at Yulin is the result of virtually non-existent animal-welfare laws in the country. Please respectfully contact your local Chinese embassy – the country doesn’t take kindly to foreign interference, and none of us wants this to backfire – and urge officials to do everything in their power to ban this cruel festival and to strengthen laws to protect animals. Please be culturally sensitive.
The future of animal welfare in China depends on a change of attitude in the country. Please help PETA Asia’s work in China by making a donation today.
