Canine controversy: Chinese festival serves up dog meat
Yulin, China (CNN) -- A mob of
people have surrounded a group of animal rights activists protesting in the
busiest open market in town. It's the eve of Yulin's annual dog meat festival,
a tradition that dates back generations to celebrate the summer solstice.
Arguments
ensue among those living in the city and the people who condemn the tradition.
"Don't you eat beef? If you stop eating beef, then we'll stop eating dog
meat," yells one man frustrated with the intense media scrutiny in the
Dong Kou open market, where an array of birds, snakes, cats and livestock are
sold as daily fresh fare.
Dozens of
journalists, filmmakers and photographers have come to the city in China's
southeast Guangxi province to document an event that lies at the center of a
battle between deeply-ingrained tradition and the encroachment of the modern
world. Activists say dogs are part of the daily diet here, with an estimated
10,000 dogs killed for the festival alone.
Ask a local
when the tradition of eating dog meat began and you'll likely be met with a
dumbfounded expression -- it is akin to asking someone when people started
eating beef. For many in the city, eating dog meat is a hard habit to break,
despite changing attitudes about the treatment of animals in China.
Rising prices
Another man
at the market criticizes the media attention for increasing the price of dog
meat, which has doubled since 2011 and now goes for $6 a kilogram.
In one stall, a butcher places a gutted and skinned dog on a wired
sheath and uses a blow torch to cook a delicacy known to locals as "crispy
skin dog meat." As the shop owner butchers a another piece of dog, flecks
of flesh flick onto her face. She tells CNN she's been in the trade for over 10
years.
"This is
our tradition and we are used to eating dog. It's our culture and we won't
change ... It's tasty! But we won't kill our pet," she says, referring to
her own dog who is cowering in the other side of the shop. Her dog tucks his
head under a freezer, shielding his eyes from the carcasses of the dogs and
cats hanging from hooks.
Signs around
the market adorned with pictures of labradors and golden retrievers advertise
raw dog meat for sale, despite new government regulations that restrict this
practice.
Du Yufeng, a 58-year-old animal rights activists from Sichuan in southwest
China, has made it her mission to stop dog meat consumption across China. Her protest
in 2011 successfully ended the dog meat festival in Jinhua, in Zhejiang
province -- and she has now turned her attention to Yulin. It's her fourth year
protesting at the festival, and while dog meat continues to be a tourist
attraction for the city, Du feels that there is growing awareness of animal
rights in this city of six million people
"I feel like we've had a lot of improvement in public awareness. The first
time we came here in 2011 all you could hear were dogs wailing as soon as you
entered into the city," Du says, as she picks off ticks from the scruff of
a black dog she rescued that morning.
"The
biggest change is that the word dog on street signs have to be covered. This
means the government has become aware that this needs to be canceled. Many
people also realize that eating dog is not an honorable thing," adds Du.
Boycott
Du is one of
over 20 volunteers who have descended upon the city from the far reaches of
China, to boycott the festival. Many run dog and cat shelters in their
hometowns and have spent their life savings to rescue abandoned and diseased
animals. But canceling the annual Yulin festival is now their main objective.
Another
activist, Zhao Yangsu, said this is her first year protesting against the
Yulin dog meat festival. The soft spoken 59-year old, who came to the city from
Chongqing, says she's spent her retirement money, roughly $1,000, to save dogs
-- a fact she's reluctant to share with her children. She and another volunteer
operate from makeshift shelter on the corner of a street in Yulin, only a block
from where live dogs are traded on a daily basis.
Though she
has come here to fight for the rights of these animals, she's pessimistic about
any meaningful change here.
This is our
tradition and we are used to eating dog. It's our culture and we won't change.
Butcher, Yulin
Butcher, Yulin
"I have
no hope that these people will change and our ability to make change is not
significant enough," Zhao says. "We have to go through the government
to create some laws to protect these animals, but there are no laws and our
ability to do anything is insignificant."
Yang Yuhua, a
64-year-old retired steel worker, has also spent her life savings protecting
street dogs and cats in Chongqing, and now she says she doesn't even have money
to charge her phone. Yang was cradling a dead puppy when CNN arrived at the
makeshift shelter. She says the puppy was born after they had rescued a
pregnant dog and this one did not make it. Almost all the dogs appeared
injured, disfigured and diseased.
"What we
need the most now is medicine, but it's the most expensive thing," Yang
says as as she tears up. Many of the dogs in her care are in desperate need of
antibiotics to fight off infection, but the volunteers don't know where to find
them in the city.
Together, the
activists say they've saved more than 400 dogs this year alone in Yulin -- yet
this number will be dwarfed by the number of animals likely to be slaughtered
for food at the festival. Asked what makes this different from eating beef or
pork, Du Yunfeng's answer is unequivocal.
"You cannot categorically say that all animals should either be
eaten or not eaten," she says.
"Every
animal has their its own value and worth. For example, grass-eating animals are
meant to be supplied to humans. But these companion animals, such as dogs and
cats, they are meant to contribute to human production -- such as drug-sniffing
dogs or watch dogs,
"So
eating these animals compared to eating pork and lamb are two different things.
Their value is not the same."
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