Stop Yulin! (sensitive content)
In Yulin, China, there is a festival that occurs every year that has come under fire of pretty much every animal group out there. It is the Yulin Dog Meat Festival. This is a cruel and abusive festival made to appease the demand for dog meat but instead the practice tortures the dogs.
Every year about a month before the festival, activists get in groups to make a difference. Some of them focus on trying to campaign against it, or film during the festival, although many aren’t successful because filming is not permitted. Others will head to the festival to protest. Before the festival begins, many will stay at points on the roads and will intercept and rescue the animals heading towards Yulin. They are transported in filthy trucks, tied and cramped together (image below). These animals that are rescued are shipped around the world to different animal rescues, where they will hopefully get the life they deserve.
Others are not so lucky. They arrive In Yulin and are thrown off the trucks. They are dragged and beaten, placed in cages until the festival, where they are given barely enough to survive. When the festival begins they start the slaughter, yelling and dragging the dogs. They have large pots full of boiling water and they throw them in while the people watch as if it is an everyday concept. They are boiled alive, skinned, and are cut open. Some of the vendors string the dogs up on sticks and prance them around like it is something to be proud of. The animals experience never-ending neglect. Most of them were stolen from homes in the major cities such as Beijing or Shanghai while some were raised for the slaughter. Between two or three million dogs and cats lose their lives annually to the demand of their meat in China while thousands lose their lives in the week span of the Yulin festival.
Eating dog is a pretty common thing in China. Many cultures believe that dog meat can bring them luck if eaten on the summer solstice, which is when the dog meat festival is held. Unfortunately, this had led to China possessing the second highest rate of rabies cases in humans worldwide. Mot cases are through dog bites...I wonder why.
Thankfully, the activists and animal groups have been successful. This festival has been brought to the attention of many celebrities such as Ricky Gervais, Lucy Watson, Kelly Osbourne, Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon, Peter Egan, and many others. The endless videos, protests, shouts, rescues, tears, and time devoted to this cause have moved mountains. They have been successful to push the festival down to one street, known as Dog Meat Street. Activists stationed here are continuously saving these animals, trying to wake up the heart in the people committing these cruel acts.It is important to spread the word everyone. Tell your friends and family, make a sign, anything. A little goes a long way. STOP THE YULIN FESTIVAL!!!!For more information, I will paste links to videos, but they could be very graphic and hard to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUak_Myh8-4&vl=en- easy to watch https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2so5ws- slightly disturbinghttps://vimeo.com/101438491- extremely disturbing
