A Dog's Worst Nightmare - China's Yulin Dog Meat Festival

Have you ever owned a pet dog? Can you picture him or her waiting for you each and every day in front of your house for your return home and to run around in joy and lick your feet as soon as you return? Dogs have always been utterly faithful creatures, but can you ever even think of assigning a dog’s fate to be eaten?

For both dogs as well as their loving owners in China, the Yulin Dog Meat Festival can be said as their worst nightmare brought to life. Over 10,000 dogs are butchered and then eaten annually in this 10 day long festival held in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in the South-East of the country. Though the consumption of dog meat in China has been there since ancient times as dog meat purportedly helps alleviate heat exhaustion, the Yulin festival itself started since 2010.

Animal rights activists throughout the years have actively campaigned against such events and in 2011 they scored a victory by cancelling the much similar Jinhua Hutou Dog Meat Festival through an online campaign. Not only did this save the lives of thousands of dogs, this also served to increase the pet ownership among the Chinese.

In this festival, thousands of dogs are tortured, skinned and boiled alive because they believe those actions make the meat taste better. Why are these people so cruel? Why do they take dogs’ right to live? Why do they use animals to satisfy their desperate feelings? How do they become happy by watching someone else cry out loud of pain?

Even though activists have tried to cancel the Yulin Dog Meat Festival through a petition with over 2.5 million signatures, it could not be halted due to the fact that the festival is being carried out by private business organizations. But still, multiple actions are taken to save the lives of these poor creatures such as buying the dogs that are to be butchered and freeing them later on.

Ask yourself. Are dogs and pets the only animals whose lives should be considered precious? Doesn’t every living being have the right to live? Even though most people avoid this question, it is something that we all must ask ourselves.