China Bans Dog Meat Festival

Thanks to furious protests by hundreds of thousands of Animal rights activists, officials in Hutou, Zhejiang province, eastern China have decided to ban a 600-year-old dog meat festival, where around 15,000 dogs were due to be boiled alive, butchered and then eaten over a period of three days in October.

The tradition of eating dog meat in China dates back thousands of years. Around 300 B.C., the Chinese philosopher Mencius wrote of the “three beasts” bred for food—pigs, goats and dogs.

According to an article in The Daily Star (WARNING: contains graphic images), a provincial government spokesman told local media: “Some villagers argued that they had emotional attachments to the festival, as it had been passed from generation to generation, while some said it should be listed as the city’s cultural heritage.”

The article interestingly uses words like “sickening,” “gruesome” and “appalling cruelty” when discussing the dog meat festival. We definitely agree, but think the same words can be used to describe any meat eating festival. After all, don’t we eat cows, pigs, chickens and fish simply because we like how they taste and have been eating them for thousands of years?

Humans may have a closer connection with dogs, but that’s still not a valid justification for loving some animals and eating others.

Image Source: Beatrice Murch (via (Flickr)