ladbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Dog Meat To Be Banned At Annual Chinese Festival

Dog Meat To Be Banned At Annual Chinese Festival

Good.

Mark McGowan

Mark McGowan

An annual Chinese festival that sells dog meat as food will see it banned after activists campaigned against mistreatment of the animals.

Restaurants, street vendors and market traders will be prohibited from selling the meat at the Yulin festival, and will face a fine of 100,000 yuan and run the risk of arrest if caught breaking the new law.

According to the Daily Mail, the ban will come into effect a week before the festival on June 15.

Credit: Barcroft

Animal campaigners, Duo Duo Animal Welfare Project and Humane Society International (HSI), reportedly received reports of the ban.

More than 10 million dogs and 4 million cats are slaughtered every year in China, according to the Mail, which are then sold in traditional national dishes.

Last year American activist, Marc Ching, travelled to China to rescue as many dogs as possible from slaughterhouses across the region.

Ching and his companion, Valarie Ianniello, reportedly saved 1000 dogs as of last night, according to his Facebook page.

His methods include buying dogs from sellers and then shipping them back to the US for rehabilitation to persuading slaughterhouse owners to give up the trade.

He's even managed to help people set up new businesses - which says to me that these people are in it for the money, not the tradition.

Of course, there are those who don't want to see the dogs freed and have been violent towards Ching. He even claims to have been stopped and questioned by authorities on his way to Yulin.

Last month, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to ban people from eating cat and dog meat.

Under the new legislation, anyone found guilty of eating the animals can be slapped with a fine of between NT$50,000 (£1,300) and NT$250,000 (£6,500), the China Post reports.

If those convicted continue to break the law, the government can enforce a fine of up to NT$5m (£130,000) or a jail term of five years, the Guardian reports.

The ban is part of an amendment to animal protection laws, which also covers the selling, possession or purchasing of cat or dog carcasses.

Sadly, the ban on the Yulin festival is only temporary, but people recognise the small victory it has brought for now.

Featured Image Credit: Barcroft

Topics: China