A charity is urging westerners to stay away from the Yulin Dog Meat festival, warning that disaster tourism’ will only ‘make the cruel event even worse’.
The Yulin Lychee and Dog Meat Festival, which began around 2010, sees dogs and cats – who are often stolen pets – brutally tortured and killed in the street before they are made into dishes for stalls and restaurants to serve.
Over the 10-day festival, it is thought that up to 10,000 dogs and 5,000 cats are killed and eaten.
Now charity NoToDogMeat, which operates two shelters for rescued dogs in , says that even those attending the festival in protest risk ’emboldening the festival organisers’ who could escalate levels of animal cruelty.
It is believed that torturing the animals before they are killed, in ways that include hanging, beating, and blowtorching among others, makes the meat tastier, and so butchers have been documented carrying out these acts during the 10-day event.
According to charity NoToDogMeat, animals killed and eaten during the festival include a number of stolen pets
According to the charity, animals killed and consumed at the event are ‘not bred for meat’, and it says many are rounded up strays as well as stolen pets who are ‘often still wearing collars and leads when they go to slaughter’.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the festival was scaled back as travel to Yulin was restricted even in China, and international travel was forbidden.
But as restrictions lift, the charity fears that that the festival will scale up again, and says it is bracing itself for Jokowi Menolak Gibran Menjadi Cawapres di Pemilu 2024 Mendatang an ‘onslaught of suffering’.
