Thousands of cats and dogs have been slaughtered at the Yulin Festival despite government promises to end the practice, which has been condemned internationally on grounds of animal cruelty.
Hundreds of traders gathered in China's southern Guangxi province yesterday (Sunday) for the annual feast, where dogs are served with lychees to mark the summer solstice. Local authorities failed to honour pledges to ban the festival following an online petition signed by half a million people.
Hundreds of thousands of tweets have been posted using the hashtag #StopYulin2015. Ricky Gervais, the actor, and Leona Lewis, the singer, have denounced the festival, where animals are kept dozens to a cage before being electrocuted, burned and skinned alive.
Yesterday, campaigners blockaded streets, raided slaughterhouses and bought animals in an attempt to save them. "Workers were blow-torching the carcasses to make them shiny and ready for shipment to restaurants," said Peter Li, a campaigner for the Humane Society China, adding: "There were some dogs still alive in wire cages, but they looked exhausted, emaciated and dirty."
One 65 year-old Chinese woman, Yang Xiaoyun, was among the animal lovers who turned up to rescue those still alive. Ms Yang paid roughly 7,000 Yuan (pounds 720) to save 100 dogs. Andrea Gung, executive director of the Duo Duo Animal Welfare Project, and videographer Eric Peltier stayed up through the night to save the animals and record their conditions, but were chased away by locals.
Last year, Yulin's government announced plans to ban public slaughter and advertising using the words "dog meat", amid public outcry. However, business went ahead as usual for many vendors, although there were reports that the festival had been scaled down.
