Activists save Chinese dogs from cooking pot

I read with disgust this below article and it is just so sickening.  The Chinese government has no animal welfare standards whatsoever.  The complete lack of compassion towards other living beings, apparent in the general treatment of animals in China, not just those in the illegal wildlife trade but in the legal market. Cats and dogs are being captured and slaughtered by opportunists. Some of these animals were stolen. Kudos to the animal activists and animal lovers who saved these animals. I hope they will gather a bigger voice to fight this old culture of killing, serving and devouring dogs and cats as an exotic dish.

A Chinese animal lover rescues a sick dog after a convoy of trucks carrying some 500 dogs to be sold as meat, were stopped along a highway in Beijing. Photo: AFP

HUNDREDS of dogs being trucked to Chinese restaurants were spared a culinary fate after about 200 animal lovers mobilised to stop them ending up on dinner tables.

A truck crammed with the dogs was forced to stop on a highway in eastern Beijing by a motorist who swerved his car in front of the vehicle then used his microblog to alert animal rights activists, reports said.

The dogs, many apparently stolen from their owners, were being transported from the central Chinese province of Henan to restaurants in Jilin province in the northeast, the China Daily said. It said 430 dogs were rescued, while the Global Times put the number at 520.

Eventually, about 200 animal lovers and activists gathered around the truck in eastern Beijing during Friday's drama - and after a 15-hour standoff that jammed traffic the dogs were freed early on Saturday when an animal protection group purchased them for 115,000 yuan ($17,600), the Global Times said.

A volunteer helps to clean a temporary shelter at Dongyuhe village in Changping district. Some 430 rescued dogs are being kept in the shelter. - Photo: China Daily

Chinese animal lovers release the rescued dogs at the China Animal Protection Association.  
Photo: AFP

The interception of the dogs was the latest bold action by pet-lovers in China, where growing awareness of animal rights is colliding with centuries-old culinary practices.

There have been regular reports in recent years of citizens attempting to block trucks carrying hundreds or even thousands of cats to meat markets in southern China, where cat meat is particularly popular.

The China Daily quoted activists saying many of the dogs still had collars with bells and name tags, indicating they had been stolen from their owners and that the trucking company transported a load of dogs to Jilin each week.

The consumption of dog and cat meat, both of which are believed to promote bodily warmth and are thus popular in winter, remains widespread in China despite a surge in popularity as pets.

However, earlier press reports have said authorities were looking into drafting a law that could outlaw the practice.

The reports on the dog rescue suggested the truck company was unlikely to face legal action as it had all the necessary permits to transport the animals.

The healthy dogs without identifying collars would be available for adoption in one month while the sick ones, suffering variously from dehydration and infectious diseases, were sent to pet hospitals in Beijing.

 

Chinese animal lovers gather to stop a convoy of trucks carrying some 500 dogs to be sold as meat, along a highway in Beijing. Photo: AFP

Some Chinese still consider man's best friend a delicious main course, with dark-coloured pups tasting best.  Here, at a Cantonese market, a customer shops for dog food for dinner.

 

May all the dogs and cats who were victims of slaughter and abuse previously have a good rebirth. May the people in China awaken and may they develop compassion in their conscience to stop harm towards animals and to immediately stop committing and accumulating further negative karma.