China's dog meat festival opens despite ban rumors

China's not the only nation to think that cruelly slaughtering animals makes them tastier and is okay because it's "tradition". This disgusting practice has got to stop.

Vile.

I feel sick after reading that article.

I'm thinking very, very bad thoughts about all the people involved, vendors and customers, and I hate them for making me want really, really horrible things to happen to them all. Nasty, nasty people.

If the animals are farmed, treated and slaughtered humanely, there's no difference from eating any other meat. If they are treated cruelly - of course it has to be halted.

Don't google photos of the festival.

How would the Chinese feel if some culture decided that Panda meat was an aphrodisiac and started killing pandas for their meat and their fur? They would be furious to think that THEIR national animal was being used for a barbaric reason. They can't seem to see past their own ignorance!

Disturbing article.

Personally, what shocks me most here is the total lack of respect for other life forms. The fact the 'victims' here are dogs is imo anecdotal.

I get that all cultures do eat different foods/meats (I certainly do) but find it unacceptable that in 2017 people still do not care nor believe that animals are sensitive to pain, feel emotions etc. Reeks of ignorance, selfishness and stupidity.

i have seen dog eaten in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan, China and Japan. If you want to try some here, just go to koreatown in Osaka. They don't have the dogs bodies hanging outside, but it is not hard to find on the menus. I always wondered where they got the dogs from because there are no stray dogs in Japan and pet shops charge an arm and a leg.

This is just awful.

 slaughtered humanely

There is no such thing as humane slaughter, not in the meat industry.

This is appalling - I hope the negative attention that eating dog flesh gets, makes people think more about the other flesh they eat, and find out how badly those animals are treated before they end up butchered.

I hope the negative attention that eating dog flesh gets, makes people think more about the other flesh they eat

It was precisely an argument with a friend about dog meat vs cow/pig/bird meat that set me off on the path to becoming a vegetarian. She convinced me there was no difference, though I think she was trying to persuade me that there was nothing wrong with eating Fido.

Chinese people boast they eat all four footed except desks and chairs.

Cleo; your friend was right. There is no difference. Any non-endangered species is potential dinner. The whole controversy is largely cultural imperialism, with western lefties trying to impose their values on others.

A Japanese student told me she went to China as a part of a cultural exchange program and she told me that she tried dog meat and that it was quite good. She said it tasted better than beef, which really surprised her. She only ate one piece because she hated the idea of eating dog meat. I asked her how it was cooked and she said it was prepared like yaki-niku with a sauce to dip it in.

Saw it offered at a place in Tokyo, goes by akaniku.

US- friend was shocked that his favorite corned beef here contains Horse Meat.

There is no difference.

Exactly. Eating Babe/Daisy/Chicky/Bambi etc., is just as bad as eating Fido.

There is no difference.

I think there is. Boiling dogs (or any animal for that matter) alive, beating them to make their meat more tender, hound hunting etc are imo more cruel than killing animals in the wild with a single bullet or killing livestock as humanely as possible.

Animal lovers do not need to be vegans & not all vegans care about animals.

As a hunter, I feel as long as the meat they eat is just for consumption, then I don't see a problem with it. We eat foods in the west that some might find odd or offputting I may not like it, but who are we to judge what others eat and have eaten for hundreds of years. Take the emotion out of it for a moment, Now if they torture the animal for the fun of it, then that would be very bad.

I kind of agree with you Bass, but knowing how much more useful dogs are as human companions instead of food just makes this "tradition" nonsensical.  Hunting and finding food with dogs has been mutually beneficial between our species for thousands of years.  If you're starving, then yeah, I could see someone wanting to eat dogs.   But when you're not, why do it with so many other animals to breed for consumption? I still don't understand why one would do this.   Heck, why not breed rabbits?  They develop quickly, breed like crazy, grain fed etc...

There are some Chinese that own dogs as pets and have a very good reason to worry when their dog goes missing.   The "missing dog" flyers won't work all that well.  (Dark humor, sorry couldn't resist)

Authorities seize truck with more than 800 dogs, jam-packed in cages, bound for slaughter

http://blog.humanesociety.org/wayne/2017/06/authorities-seize-truck-with-more-than-800-dogs-jam-packed-in-cages-bound-for-slaughter-at-yulin.html?credit=blog_post_062117_idhome-page

Not only is the festival not sanctioned by the government, officials are making an even more intense effort to shrink the event. So sadly it isn't dead yet but thanks to domestic and international pressure the number of dog markets and slaughterhouses is at an all time low. Now if we could only get people to stop eating pigs, cows, chickens, turkeys, lambs, rabbits and other meat here in the US. The way we treat factory farm animals is no better than what these dogs experience.

Chinese people boast they eat all four footed except desks and chairs.

Do they? I've not heard any Chinese say such a thing. Then again, when articles like this one crop up; you can almost smell the anticipation, the smacking of lips, the rubbing of hands... let's feast on the Chinese, focus on their odd habits/ways/peculiarities.

There is no doubt that cruelty to the animals is abhorrent and it should be highlighted, though. But it's not just one country involved in animal cruelty, is it?

"Chinese people boast they eat all four footed except desks and chairs."

Japanese make this "joke" about the Chinese. I've never heard a Chinese person say this, but I've heard several Japanese state it as fact.

Chinese people boast they eat all four footed except desks and chairs

A 'joke' I first heard in the UK. Never heard it in Japan.

My personal take on it is that we should be able to hunt our food, eat livestock that has been raised decently, or go vegan. I think it is wrong to torture animals, to confine them in cages for our amusement as in zoos or aquariums, or as in livestock (particularly in the US where the conditions these animals are kept in are deplorable.

We should be allowed to hunt our meat in the wild. Take Japan for example. Plenty of deer and wild boar that destroy crops and cause injury to people. These animals in the wild can be hunted and consumed. But locking animals in cages is not good. And I am biased as well. Eating animals that are pets- to me- is both horrifying and disgusting- dogs, cats, horses. A big no. Wild animals and livestock ok, but the conditons they are kept in should be humane.

I wish for an international commission on the treatment and slaughter of animals that names and shames those countries with awful conditions and exposes them. Then the international community should ban any animal products from these countries.

But it's not just one country involved in animal cruelty, is it?

I don't understand the point. So we should talk more about other countries or less about Asia ? Animal protection activists are taking the lead in trying to get it stopped but given that this is China there is little that can be done without international pressure.

As the late great Carrie Fisher put it during her last protest in London against the festival : “There is so much animal suffering in the world, and much of it you feel helpless to end, but stopping the Yulin dog meat festival and ending all that suffering is easy. All the Chinese authorities need to do is declare it shut down, and the killing stops.”