COn the summer solstice the Yulin Festival is back. It is absurd to use a festive expression for a massacre: that of dogs that are captured, locked in cages and quartered to end up in the pot in the Chinese city. After years of criticism it seemed that the festival that horrifies us should be prohibited. But is not so. In April 2020, the Beijing Ministry of Agriculture announced a “reorganization of food resources”. The text listed livestock, from pigs to poultry, which can be reared to end up in the food chain; dogs (and cats) were not included. In reality they had never been included in the “ministerial catalog of meat animals”.
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188 million pets
But for the first time the authorities of the People’s Republic of China had taken an interest in dogs, noting that “with the progress of civilization and people’s concerns for the protection of nature, dogs are no longer considered only pets, but companions of man, as in the rest of the world ». Companions of man (statistics say that in Chinese homes there are about 188 million cats and dogs and that bosses spend € 26 billion a year for them). Excluded from breeding for food purposes. But still subject to raids to supply the Yulin market and those of other cities.
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Dehydrated and terrified
Yesterday the activists of Humane Society International they stopped a truck loaded with dogs on the highway leading to Yulin, in the southern region of Guangxi. There were 68 of them, in pitiful sanitary conditions, crammed into cages, exhausted from the journey, dehydrated and terrified. “Their behavior made us understand that they are animals accustomed to contact with humans, they put their paw in our hands, they must have been stolen around China by Festival suppliers, ”said Liang Jia, of Humane Society International.
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The government’s response
Why was the order not given to end the Festival? The question was asked in Beijing to Ms. Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Answer: «First of all it is not a diplomatic question. However, the central government has learned from the Yulin authorities that the locals have a habit of eating lychee fruits and dog meat on the days of the summer solstice. A food preference of individuals. There is no official celebration, the local government has never supported or organized a so-called Dog Meat Festival ».
The massacre of the summer solstice is not an ancient Chinese tradition. Yulin traders invented the “party” in 2010 to attract tourists. The consumption of dog meat is still considered “healthy” in much of Asia: 30 million animals are killed and eaten every year, from Korea to Cambodia; two thirds in China.
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June 21, 2021 (change June 21, 2021 | 22:29)
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