By now you’ve probably heard about the Yulin Dog Meat Festival being held in Yulin, China. The annual festival is happening from June 21 to June 30 and if the name didn’t give it away, it’s all about eating dogs.
Now, I’m not going to go into the actual festival and all its horribleness here. If you want to know more, you can check out our previous article focused specifically on it.
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Instead, this article is about the specific story of one Chinese activist, how her beliefs actually represent a large portion of the Chinese population, and how her fight to free dogs bound for Yulin resulted in a trip to the hospital.
Du Yufeng is the founder of Bo Ai Animal Protection Centre and began rescuing dogs in 2003.
Originally, she ran a successful kindergarten, but after rescuing her first stray dog, she sold that business and began focusing on animal welfare.
She opened the Bo Ai Animal Protection Centre in 2008.
While she’s happy to rescue any animal in need, her biggest focus is on the dog and cat meat industries in China.
It’s important to note, though, that her fight is against the industry and traders that keep the practice alive.
While events like the Yulin Dog Meat Festival may make it seem as though eating dogs is still common, it really isn’t.
In fact, while proponents of the dog meat trade may argue that the practice is “tradition,” the Yulin Festival only began in 2010, and it was specifically created by the industry to try to save the stagnant dog meat market.
The horrors of such events understandably get worldwide attention, which has fuelled the stereotype that all Chinese people are heartless dog-eaters.
However, according to Humane Society International (HSI), less than 20% of Chinese people eat dog or cat meat frequently. In Yulin itself, 72% of people don’t eat it.
64% of Chinese people polled want the Yulin Festival shutdown entirely and 51.7% want the entire industry banned. 69.5% of those polled have never even eaten dog meat.
For the last seven years, Du Yufeng has made a point to protest the event and petition lawmakers to shut it down.
While perception continues to turn against the festival and its promoters, the Chinese government has yet to prevent it from being held, even though there are laws clearly being broken.
Though the raising and sale of dog meat is still legal in China, the practices around the Yulin Festival break a number of other laws.
The animals are kept in terrible conditions, often starved and dehydrated. Many are sick with rabies or other illnesses, their meat still sold to humans who can (and do) get sick as well.
Plus, there is a lot of evidence that many of the dogs aren’t being bred for the event, but rather, they are being stolen from the yards of loving families. Many still wear their collars and tags.
Each year, Du and her team have managed to rescue dozens or even hundreds of dogs bound for Yulin.
But it’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated 3,000 dogs killed in recent years, or the whopping 15,000 killed during the festival’s first year.
Things came to a boiling point this year, when Du heard about a convoy of hundreds of dogs being transported to the festival in terrible conditions.
Du and her volunteers drove nine hours to were the dogs were being kept in crowded cages.
They tried to appeal to authorities to get the dogs released, but were told that the animals all had infectious diseases and were going to be buried alive . While awaiting a response to her appeal of the action, Du and her volunteers visited the dogs daily.
Every day, the volunteers returned to comfort the dogs while they waited and were regularly antagonized by the dog traffickers.
Finally, tensions grew too strong and the traffickers attacked Du and her two female volunteers.
Du was beaten over the head and all over her body before the attack was stopped and paramedics were called.
In a later statement to the Daily Mail , she explained that one of her volunteers is still hospitalized weeks later.
The volunteer is nearly 60 years old and suffered two fractured ribs and a head injury.
Sadly, the traffickers and whomever they’re in cahoots with were able to proceed with their plans.
Despite Du’s appeal for the dogs’ to be quarantined and allowed treatment for their illnesses, the animals were all killed the same night as the attack on Du and her people.
Du will continue to rescue as many dogs as she can and fight to end the festival for good.
There is some hope, as a petition with 1.5 million signatures was just delivered to the Chinese Embassy in the UK.
Maybe if we keep the pressure up, by the time the festival rolls around in 2020, it will be prevented from happening at all.
h/t: Daily Mail
