CHINA ADVANCES ITS DOG-EATING CELEBRATION TO AVOID PROTESTS - ALSO dogs, rabbits and other animals STILL BEING SKINNED WHILE ALIVE in China fur farms

The cruellest festival in the world? China advances its summer solstice DOG-EATING celebrations to avoid protests by animal rights activists.

 

Residents have begun killing and eating dogs early in celebration of the summer solstice in a bid to avoid protests by animal rights campaigners.  Some residents of the southern Chinese city of Yulin started gathering last weekend and eating dog meat and lychees to celebrate the longest day of the year, ahead of Saturday's actual solstice, state media reported.

 

WAITING TO BE SLAUGHTERED

The locals wanted to avoid protests which have in recent years seen the festival, slaughterhouses and markets selling dogs targeted as part of a social media campaign and ongoing online petition against the practice.  The public uproar reflects the increasing affluence of ordinary Chinese, who keep pets, travel overseas and are changing attitudes toward traditions they may not have questioned before.

 

Photos on state media showed groups of Yulin city residents tucking into plates of meat and vegetables around dining tables strewn with lychees. Other photos, which circulated widely on Chinese microblogs, were of skinned, cooked dogs hanging from hooks at street stalls or piled on tables. 

 

Under the Yulin tradition, eating dog and lychee and drinking liquor on the solstice is supposed to make people stay healthy during winter. It is unclear if the supposed health benefits diminish if the feast occurs before the actual solstice.

 

Animal rights activists say the event is a public health risk because the dogs undergo no quarantine to ensure they are free of disease, and that they are strays grabbed off streets around the country, as well as allegedly stolen from pet owners. The dogs are often poisoned with toxic chemicals that could be harmful to humans, they say. 

 

Deng Yidan, an activist with Animals Asia, said the public backlash hurts the image of Yulin and China.  'Negative coverage is growing — dog theft, criminal activities, food hygiene issues, and rabies fears — not to mention the division in society between those for and against the festival — together these have brought significantly more negative publicity to Yulin than economic benefits,' Deng said in a statement.  

 

The Yulin government has sought to distance itself from the feasting, saying it is not officially endorsed. State media reports say the government told restaurants to remove references to dog meat from their menus and signboards — though it did not ban the sale and consumption of the meat, which is not illegal in China. 

 

The government has denied the formal existence of such a festival, saying it is a culinary habit practiced only by some businesses and people.  Public pressure stopped another dog meat festival, in eastern Zhejiang province, which was cancelled in 2011 despite dating back hundreds of years.

 

More heartbreaking pictures

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2661107/China-dog-eaters-dodge-activists-early-feast.html

 

RELATED

 

Dogs chopped up, cooked, eaten  - It's tradition in China

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2164353/Horrific-images-dogs-killed-cooked-served-meal-sick-Chinese-tradition.html

 

 

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Animals electrocuted, strangled and skinned alive: The true face of China's fur farms

 

In new footage that is sure to disturb those with even the strongest disposition, animals – including dogs, cats and rabbits – are seen mercilessly tortured to death.

 

Undercover investigators found that many animals were still alive and struggling desperately when workers flipped them onto their backs or hang them up by their legs or tails to skin them.

 

The footage, available to watch below, shows that when workers begin to cut the skin and fur from an animal's leg, the free limbs kick and writhe.

 

When the fur is finally peeled off over the animals' heads, their naked, bloody bodies are thrown onto a pile of those who have gone before them.

 

Some are seen still alive, breathing in ragged gasps and blinking slowly. 

Link to the article about fur farms, and photo and video evidence of Animal torture in China here
 

CAUTION - Extremely disturbing images.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/381117/Animals-electrocuted-strangled-and-skinned-alive-The-true-face-of-China-s-fur-farms

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Please disseminate this video with the truth about the fur industry.

Routine torture and skinning of live animals in China fur farms 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4fjAxT2lLw&feature=player_embedded

 

BOYCOTTING ARTICLES MADE WITH FUR IS NOT ENOUGH

WHY ARE WE STILL PURCHASING SO MANY PRODUCTS MADE IN CHINA?

 

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