Chinese dog meat festival set to open despite coronavirus pandemic and pushback from animal activists

Despite bans on dog meat as human food in some cities, the Yulin season of canine consumption highlights the need for a national ban, say activists

Champions of pet welfare believe changing attitudes, tastes and generational sensibilities will eventually end practice

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The local government in Yulin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has never admitted to holding a dog meat festival, saying only a few restaurants and members of the public take part. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:00pm, 9 Jun 2020Updated: 2:24pm, 23 Jun 2020

Dog meat lovers are returning in full force for a season of feasting in the southern Chinese city of Yulin despite pressure rising across the country to end the trade after the Covid-19 pandemic focused attention on China’s meat consumption.

“The scale of the dog meat trade in Yulin is pretty much the same compared to previous years,” said animal welfare advocate Yu Dezhi. Yu surveyed the city, in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, in May.

The central government has banned the wildlife trade to curb the transmission of animal diseases to humans after the new coronavirus was suspected to have originated in bats and then jumped to people through an intermediary animal.

The southern cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai went a step further and banned the eating of dogs and cats.

In May, during the ensuing debate over what meat is fit for the dining table, the Ministry of Agriculture an Rural Affairs banned the farming of dogs for meat, saying dogs were “pets, not livestock”.

But there is no national ban on dog meat consumption and the practice, while not prevalent, continues in some places.

Animal rights activists say that changing tastes of younger Chinese people will eventually cause the dog and cat meat trade to disappear. Photo: AFP

Animal welfare activists say that the dog meat sold in the trade mostly comes from stolen dogs or strays, sometimes darted with poison. They urge China to end the practice with an animal cruelty act.