Man’s Best Friend or Dinner?

As a result of its majestic, emerald hills and peaceful, turquoise rivers, swarms of tourists flock to the idyllic province of Guangxi, eager to discover the glorious Southern Chinese landscape. However, it appears that the province may be in risk of becoming less well-known for its natural beauty, and instead gain a dire reputation as a result of a gruesome annual event held in the city of Yulin.  Although, in Mandarin, Yulin – 玉林- literally translates into ‘jade forest’, its most well-known festival is not anywhere near as pretty as the city’s name would suggest. Since 1995, the Yulin Dog Meat Festival sees an estimated 10,000 dogs bludgeoned to death and eaten. Cats are also on the menu. The event is held on summer solstice as the locals claim that consuming dog meat can ward off disease and cool the body. It has also been reported that the animals are burnt, boiled and skinned whilst still alive as the torture supposedly ‘improves’ the taste of their flesh. Even more worrying are the claims by animal activists that pet dogs are actually stolen and butchered at the festival, as well as those that the meat is unhygienic and breaches food safety regulations.

Over the recent years, the festival has sparked off growing global controversy.  A change.org online petition, protesting against this year’s festival, held on June 22^nd, amassed four million signatures. Similarly, Twitter was bombarded with the hashtag #StopYuLin2015. Celebrities also lambasted the festival, including the British comedian Ricky Gervais, who vehemently labelled those behind the event as ‘disgusting sub human c***s’.

In return, defenders of the festival insist that its part of traditional culture which foreigners should not interfere in. The Independent highlighted one Chinese netizen claim that “Dog-meat eating is a custom belonging to other people, the same way that people of the Islamic Hui ethnic group doesn’t eat pork […] They won’t protest us for eating pork. We should mutually respect each other.” Furthermore, those in favour of the event also accuse foreigners of hypocrisy. Hence, one Chinese netizen demanded on the social media site Quora “ What’s the difference between dog meat and cow, pig?”

In contrast to the commonplace stereotype that all Chinese people eat dogs, those living in the country’s big cities, like Shanghai or Beijing, rarely eat dog meat. In fact, the BBC underlines that whilst 10 million dogs are eaten every year in China, so are 716 million pigs and 48 million cattle.

It is also important to point out that there is great opposition within China towards the Yulin Dog Meat Festival. As China’s middle class grows, more people are starting to keep pets. Several Chinese animal activists also travel to Yulin every year to denounce the event. In particular, Yang Xiaoyan from Tianjin, spent 7,000 rmb to buy 100 dogs from vendors so that they could escape slaughter. Similarly, Chinese celebrities such as Fan Bingbing, Yang Mi and Chen Kun have also spoken out against the Yulin festival.

As someone who was lucky enough to grow up with a wonderful pet dog and has been a vegetarian for over a decade, it is hard not to be disturbed by the Yulin Dog Meat Festival. Without wanting to sound like a frenzied animal lover, I must admit that there is a reason why dogs are commonly called ‘man’s best friend’ as a result of their instinctive loyalty and unconditional love for human beings. The Chinese zodiac system, itself, acknowledges these characteristics by claiming that people born in the year of the Dog demonstrate warm-hearted and faithful.

However, as much as I am fond dogs and oppose slaughter of any animal for consumption, I do not believe any individual has the right to tell someone what they may or may not eat. It is indeed hypocritical for us to scold Yulin for eating dog meat, whilst we know very well that back home multitudes of pigs, cattle and chicken are forced to spend their entire lives trapped in the filthy, crammed living conditions that factory farming inflicts upon them

That being said, however, an event which celebrates the torture of defenceless animals is an utter disgrace and should not exist in the present day any where in the world. Just as the traditional British ‘sport’ fox-hunting – an activity which derives pleasure from killing animals- was outlawed in 2005, one can hope the same for other equally cruel activities.