It was thought that after COVID-19, this relatively new festival ‘celebrated’ each year would be shut down. Approximately 10,000 dogs are cruelly slaughtered and eaten, many do not survive long journeys without food or water, and some are injured and have broken limbs from being stacked and thrown while in their cages.

The festival began in 2009 and lasts for about ten days; participants eat lychees and dog meat, which is supposedly very good for one’s health, according to traders who were responsible for promoting the festival which took off and has grown. This festival draws criticism both locally and abroad. Many of the dogs appear to have been stolen pets, with their nice collars still on. Thousands of dogs are reported stolen.

Millions of Chinese citizens support a legislative proposal to ban the trade. A Chinese petition in 2016 received 11 million signatures (wikipedia.org/lychee and dog meat festival), yet it continues, partly as an antagonistic rebuttal to western nations. It is not as if western nations have the kindest laws and protection for animals, yet it is within our culture that a part of our purpose as human beings is to look after nature and animals, to prevent suffering.

Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, animals and especially dogs kept as pets were seen and described as a debased ideology. Local dog meat traders today with their supporters argue that to ban the festival is just a harmful western ideology being introduced into China, which has for centuries (on and off) eaten dogs – making it “cultural”.

Yet, Chinese Professor Peter J Li from the university of Houston replied that the opposition to eating dogs began with the Chinese people, and that “the bond between companion animals and humans is not western. It is a transcultural phenomenon.” Welfare groups estimate 30 million dogs are slaughtered and eaten in SE Asia every year, China being the largest followed by Vietnam, South Korea, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines.

Pam Brandis,
Dip. Canine Prac.