China’s Dog Meat Festival – Cruelty Or Culture?

In some parts of China, dog meat is considered a delicacy at the dinner table and the practice of consuming dog meat has been around since 500BC, or possibly even earlier. However, as more and more Chinese are raising dogs as pets nowadays, they consider eating dog meat as cruel and barbaric behaviour.

In the past few years, animal rights activists have launched several campaigns, both online and offline, against the consumption of dog meat. Every year, they call for the abolition of the annual dog meat festival which involves eating dog meat hotpot with lychees and drinking strong liquor. The event takes place in Yulin city, Guangxi province on the summer solstice of the lunar calendar. This year, the date is June 21. On the other hand, local residents claim that the festival is part of the city’s cultural heritage and traditional practices.

Last year, animal rights activists estimated that more than 10,000 dogs were killed during the festival. Below is Apple Daily’s report on the preparation of dog meat in the 2013 festival:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8zaDl7-G24

This year’s anti-dog meat festival campaign started in early May. A number of celebrities, such as Chen Kun and Yang Mi, have spoken out for the abolition of the festival since then. As the festival is approaching, in Sina Weibo, Chinese netizens have started tweeting anti-dog meat festival messages. Here is a typical campaign message written by Weibo user “Singing Feifei” (@踏歌的菲菲):

Two campaign stickers against the dog meat festival circulated on Weibo. Via “Singer Feifei” Weibo.

With popular support, animal rights activists went to Yulin to lobby the local government to stop the festival. In addition to the animal rights perspective, they put forward the food security and legal argument as the Ministry of Agriculture had issued a quarantine regulation on dogs and cats last year, requiring laboratory quarantine for the animals before they are transported. While the laboratory quarantine would cost 200 yuan to 300 yuan per dog (approximately US 30-48 dollars), local residents would not be willing to bear the cost.

To avoid the accusation that the authorities are involved in encouraging the illegal consumption of dog meat, the Yulin government sent out a press release on June 6 [zh] that “there is no such thing as “Summer Solstice Lychee Dog Meat Festival” and that the so-called festival “has never been initiated by any government or civic organization… it is a form of social gathering during the summer solstice”.

While the Yulin government is washing their hand off the festival, dog meat lovers and Yulin residents are fighting back saying that animal right activists have no right to stop people [zh] from eating dog meat.

The Chinese food culture and individual rights argument have also found a lot of echoes from Chinese social media. For example “Xiya protector” (@希瓦的守护) said:

Lu Daheng (@卢-达恒) believed the controversy is a reflection of cultural conflict:

So far the most convincing argument is about food security. The compromise would be a system to guarantee the security of dog meat rather than a straightforward ban. Doctor Lui Lang in Weibo suggested: