Yulin Dog Meat Festival
Yulin 2017
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With the horrific torture fest of Yulin happening this week despite everyone’s attempts to ban this brutality, we want to share with you some positive news and thank you for all your donations and support. We cannot stop this festival – it’s up to the Chinese government to stop it, or not – but it has significantly reduced in size since we first took to the streets in 2012. Unfortunately media attention and celebrity interest has encouraged butchers to increase the prices they charge for the dogs, and dogs are being shipped in especially just so ‘rescuers’ can buy them only abandoning them to die after the festival has ended. Talk of closing slaughterhouses there has only ever been talk, since most slaughterhouses are makeshift anyway.
It is our decision along with respected groups to boycott Yulin. This does not mean we won’t save dogs bound for slaughter. Our group was one of the first to work with activists in China stopping trucks. It just means we will not hand over money to dog meat butchers and thus increase demand.
Throughout May and this month also we have been staking out warehouses where the stolen pets are kept and working to raid them. These trucks do not just go to Yulin they are on the move in broad daylight regularly to Dongbei which is in the North of China. Here there is a large Korean population and over 400-500 dogs are brutally slaughtered daily.
#SupportTheSolution
Our pledge this Yulin is to take in up to 100 lives and keep them in our shelter south of Beijing caring for them until they find homes. Rescue is only ever the beginning of a long journey for the animals and the people who care for them. On June 21st, our London Team will join protests outside the Chinese Embassy as well as spreading awareness in Chinatown all week. Our CEO Julia also has a meeting with the OIE (World Health Organisation) to discuss our concerns on food safety and reiterate the systematic torture that they fail to address. We do this to stand in solidarity with activists in Asia giving them a voice, and it is also a wonderful way people can meet our rescues.
This year we will have Annabel with us. Annabel is an apricot chow chow, gentle and kind. She was on a truck bound for Yulin in 2015 and her injuries were so bad she lost her eye. Our friend Sarah Pinq rescued her and gave her refuge pending her recovery in her small shelter. Three days before we came to pick up her to start her new life in Europe Sarah’s shelter was demolished with just 36 hours’ notice by the Government of Tianjin. Sarah is now in a holding yard with her 120 dogs and has to start from scratch and we have pledged to help her.
Genuine Hero Rescuers
People like Sarah and our own Mr Zhao who runs our partner’s shelter south of Beijing are the real heroes of Yulin. They work very hard and risk their lives day in day out to make a difference and struggle just to feed the dogs. That is why we need your help to donate whatever you can. With your help we have been able to vaccinate all the dogs previously saved, build a cattery and start to microchip them. Our plan is still to build a medical facility that can be used by other small groups for a low fee helping more dogs and cats and we will let you know more how you can be involved.
Despite the sadness we hope you can enjoy the photos of our lovely rescues needing sponsors and homes and we hope you will take three minutes to watch this wonderful video which shows how dedicated Mr Zhao is.
Thank you so much for your support.
Please donate here to support genuine Yulin rescuers
