#yulin2015

By Dominick Mezzapesa

Yulin2016.com

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WildlifePlanet.net

Eating dog meat is not a Chinese tradition and the Yulin “dog-meat” festival is just a money-making scheme carried out and excused under the banner of culture and tradition

Leading proponents that defend the Yulin Dog Meat Eating Festival proclaim "China has always been a dog-eating nation." This notion is enhanced and made more believable mainly due to the portrayal of the practice in the film Shaolin Temple and helped further by over-promoting Yulin restaurant-owners and local officials. Even China's reluctance to outright forbid dog meat only serves to give their arguments some sort of legitimacy.

During the 1999 move "In China, they eat dogs" The title is a reference to an axiom as one brother explains to the other brother that there is no such thing as moral absolutism, and that whether something is right or wrong depends on the situation.

Around 1995, Yulin, a city in south-west China’s Guangxi province created the festival to boost the local economy. To promote the importance of the festival, they claimed that they were honoring China's long history of eating Dog. What they never envisioned was the worldwide debate and subsequent condemnation for their money making scheme.

The local government never expecting that its commercial activities would come under such heavy pressure from dog lovers around the country, let alone the world. The officials tried to backtrack from their participation and this year they even attempted to push the slaughtering of thousands of dogs and cats into the restaurants back rooms and pleaded with management to perform their butchery under the cover of night.

Yulin and China tried to not only cover up the slaughter they went so far as to declare that the Chinese sign for Dog must be stricken from the local restaurant menus and awnings, but when local restaurants started refusing and even outright opposing these restrictions, the Yulin government officials started claiming that the whole affair was run by local business people in an attempt to avoid responsibility.

China’s history of dog-eating

For at least 7,000 years, archaeologists say, Dogs have been a part of Chinese households. The mythological ruler Fu Xi was said to have domesticated six wild animals: the pig, ox, goat, horse, fowl and dog, indicating that dogs were often kept even in ancient times.

Records show that back then dogs were kept not for eating, but mainly to assist their masters with hunting and as loyal companions. As the Chinese people became more engaged with agriculture, the dog’s role as hunter became less important – but it was by no means cast aside, in fact it's loyalty shown to its owner made it valued for its role as a guard dog.

Those who are claiming that eating of dog somehow maintains Chinese tradition, point out that historical documents tell of “dog butchers” who specialized in preparing the meat. Others quote from works by the founder of the Han dynasty Liu Bang and Qing dynasty painter Zheng Banqiao as proof that the Chinese have always enjoyed dog meat – but this is not enough to prove it is a tradition or custom.

The San Zi Jing, written in the 13th century and attributed to Wang Yinglin, In it it reads Horse, ox, sheep, chicken, dog, pig these six animals are those which people raise. This is generally taken to mean that these animals were a source of meat. But as agriculture developed, and eating habits changed cows, sheep, chickens and pigs became the main sources of meat for Chinese people. Dogs gradually stopped being used as food.

Prior to the Qin (256-202 B.C.E.) and Han (202 B.C.E.-220 C.E.) dynasties the combination of primitive agricultural techniques and the chaos of constant war meant that living standards were low and meat a rare luxury, offered primarily to the elderly as a sign of respect. Beasts of burden and guard dogs which died of illness or old age could not be wasted, so our thrifty ancestors would cook the meat and eat their fill.

In China's long history Dog meat was never considered a worthy meat. In ancient times offerings to the Gods were important and great attention to detail was given when any offering was presented. For the grandest of imperial ceremonies a cow or horse would be sacrificed, for less important occasions a pig or sheep, and the ordinary people would offer pork, chicken or fish. But dog was almost never used, and it was regarded as disrespectful to the spirits to do so.

When ceremonies were held or parties thrown in the upper hierarchy of China's society, it was regarded as disrespectful to both the spirits and honored invitees to serve dog. That taboo is still common today, showing that dog meat is not suitable for refined tastes, and certainly not for serving to guests.

Dog fell increasingly out of favor after the Han dynasty. Philosophical Taoism, which arose in the late Han, saw dogs as unclean and consumption of dog was believed to harm efforts to live a simple life. During the Tang (AD 618–690 & 705–907) and Song (AD 960–1279) dynasties dog consumption decreased even further as the range of available meats increased and stories of faithful dogs and Buddhist ideas of reincarnation spread.

In China which has many ethnic minorities, each with its own traditions and culinary customs. But none of them can be described as dog-eating. Further investigation revels these facts.

In Islam dogs are regarded as unclean and so there is a religious prohibition on eating dog meat.

Mongols are traditionally nomads and see dogs as guards and staunch companions.

For Manchus eating dog is taboo, due to a legend that a dog saved the life of their forefather Nurhaci.

The Tibetans are Buddhist and will not kill animals unnecessarily, and see dogs as loyal companions.

Even the Zhuang people of Guangxi – where the Yulin “dog-meat festival” takes place - and despite what the festival supporters say about tradition are not recorded in historical documents as being keen dog eaters.

It's all about the money

China evaluates their Local government officials on GDP growth. But remote and poorest regions struggle to meet these growth targets, and the officials responsible are under considerable pressure. This gives rise to various odd money-making schemes, with cultural events designed to boost the local economy a popular choice. It also leads to ignoring laws such as every dog or cat that would be used for food must pass a one week quarantine. Another law that Yulin officials fail to enforce is the documentation of where that animal came from.

Many of the 20,000 Dog and Cats killed during the 2015 festival were stolen from families that considered their pet as a part of the family and never envisioned it as someones meal.

In 2009 Yulin, situated in China’s south-west border province of Guangxi, created this grand festival and tried to reinvent itself and eventually came up with a ”dog-meat and lychee's festival” to attract tourists and investment. When the dog meat eating controversy started to become too big for these local officials, they scurried to claim Yulin as the keeper of Chinese tradition.

Up until 2009 Yulin had never been a part of mainstream Chinese culture and with no famous historical figures or events to make use of it was essentially a no name, town that before 2009 - 99% of the Chinese people never heard about and would never think of Yulin as the standard-bearer of Chinese tradition.

Dog-eaters have, naturally enough, any number of reasons to explain the legitimacy of the practice, some just did it to rebel and with China's strict hold on it's people, many saw this as an opportunity to defy China's ruling party and now the world itself. Some went as far to defend its legality by pointing out that anything not banned by law, is permitted. But somehow all these dog and cat eating people ignore the moral standards as well, higher than legal ones?

Legal standards are designed to protect our basic security. Moral standards, maintain our civilization and ensure we do not sway towards the degenerate. And our own standards push us ever forward to achieve more than our ancestors or even tradition has set for us.

While the dog-eating advocates argue the reasons for their case, they never seem to stop and hear the wails coming from dogs whose head and body are being cruelly pummeled with hammers and sticks. They never seem to hear the whimpering of dogs and cats who know that their time is at hand and their only wish is to be reunited with the loving family that they were stolen from.

These advocates cry about tradition and that the world has no right to tell them how to act or what to eat all the while stepping over the street gutters in order to avoid the continuous and seemingly never ending flow of blood from slaughtered defenseless animals being butchered in the name of the almighty Chinese Yuan.

works cited, references,

Wikipedia

"The Myth of Dog Eating in China by Hu Yifu

A woman spent £630 on 100 dogs to stop them being killed and served up as food at a controversial festival in China.

Retired school teacher Yang Xiaoyun travelled 1,500 miles from her home in Tiankin, China, to a dog meat festival in Yulin in an attempt to save the animals.

Photos from the event show Xiaoyun, 65, walking past cages where the dogs were being kept as she made her purchases to free them.

Animal rights activists have condemned the annual festival, where up to 10,000 dogs are killed each year for consumers.

Animal lover Ricky Gervais spoke of his horror at the festival.

He said in a statement: "I will never forget the look of bewilderment and fear on the faces of these poor animals -- the dogs and cats await a horrible fate.

"No animal deserves to be treated like this.”

Others have tweeted their disgust under the #StopYulin2015 hashtag.

Hong Kong charity Animals Asia claim that most dog meat  - which is legal in China - comes from stolen pets or strays found on the streets.

They also state that the the dogs are treated inhumanely, with many being cramped in small cages while others are beaten or poisoned to death.

Xiaoyun has rescued hundreds of animals since 1995, and now houses them at her own sanctuary, called the Common Home for All.

Her shelter houses almost 1,500 dogs and 200 cats and she is now hoping to open a second sanctuary - in Yulin.

According to the National Geographic, our global meat consumption almost doubled in 50 years. In 2011 the worldwide total meat consumed by humans totalled 1,316,271 tons. That’s the equivalent of 7272 Blue whales. The biggest percentage of that is seafood of various kinds, followed by pork, poultry and beef. However, all over the planet different countries and cultures consume all sorts of animals, from insects to elephants. So, how do we decide which animals are friends and which are food? And what happens to those in the fuzzy line between the two?

Historically speaking in the UK only the rich could afford to eat meat, and they ate an awful lot of it. Banquets weren’t purely parties or occasions, they were an opportunity to compete with social or political rivals. Five-course meals were not uncommon and guests could expect a huge variety of meats from game like stags, hares and rabbits to goats and even birds like herons and swans. The common people, on the other hand, had to make do with what they could grow and rear, and animals were valued for the milk and eggs they could produce; to eat them would be an extravagance.

Even in these days of unnecessary overindulgence (and bizarre tastes) it was considered a taboo to eat dogs, cats or horses as a matter of course in England. Dogs were used for hunting, companionship or vermin control, and cats were widely considered to be associates of witches which could account for their absence from menus. Horses were too important for combat and transport to be wasted on the dinner table. More widely in Europe eating of horses was certainly more common, but dogs and cats were still friends, not food.

In Victorian times, animal fancy as a concept started to emerge. Different breeds started to diverge for the purposes of showing, and it was around the same time that keeping these new breeds as pets became popularised. As common as it was to domestically breed meat rabbits, it was becoming a pet for children. There was a bit of crossover in this instance between pet and food, and the popularity of rabbit meat has steadily decreased in the UK as they have become more common as pets. It’s entirely possible that these facts go hand in hand.

If you walk into any supermarket meat aisle you can expect to find the standard stock of chicken, beef and pork products. In some you might find slightly more surprising fare, from guinea fowl and rabbit to kangaroo and ostrich. Our tastes are diversifying to what some would argue are extremes, with exclusive restaurants offering dishes that might turn delicate stomachs. For instance if you were to dine at Archipelago in London you could tuck into a starter of pan-fried crickets, python carpaccio, zebra jerky or crocodile meat. For your main course you could choose kangaroo skewers, jerk-spiced alpaca or bison steak. The side orders include ants and, if you’re still hungry, you can opt for a dessert of chocolate-covered locusts, caramel mealworms or an ice cream sundae with a bee in it.

However, even in the most extreme and out-there UK eateries you’d still be hard pressed to find dog or cat on any menus, and while horse meat is available it is controversial and uncommon. This is the case throughout most of Europe and the US. Sadly, the same cultural taboo is not omnipresent, and there are a minority of countries where dogs, in particular, are killed for their meat in often horrific ways. In China alone some 10 million dogs are killed for food every year, many of whom are stolen pets. The annual Yulin festival accounts for the slaughter of around 10,000 dogs, which has been highly publicised and widely condemned. Humane Society International volunteers are doing their best to buy as many dogs as possible to try and save them from this fate.

Organisations like Soi Dog and IAPWA have been speaking out against the practice, educating people in Asia to turn them against the dog meat trade and raising awareness of the issue in Western countries. Celebrities like Judi Dench, Ricky Gervais, Peter Egan and Marc Abraham have also lent their voices to the cause.