I’m not that picky when it comes to my meals. There are like maybe six food I don’t fuck with. And two of them I’m allergic to. Firmly on that list of things I don’t put in my mouth-hole, though, are cat meat and dog meat. I just don’t understand how people can eat the same animals that can be so interactive with humans. I have no qualms with playing with a pig or a chicken before slicing that beast’s head off and tossing it into a deep fryer. Mostly because I’m not sure what else a pig or chicken would do if we didn’t eat them. Seriously, what could a chicken possibly do that is more important to society than providing meat? But people name cats and dogs. They bring them into their home and exercise with them. Pet dogs are pretty much like an adopted child except they don’t have thumbs.
So of course my mind is pretty blown in all of the wrong directions thanks to this news that Chinese activists rescued 29 dogs and 5 cats from a slaughterhouse, where said animals were being prepped to be eaten at the annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival.
Via Mirror:
“Terrified puppies and kittens destined for the dinner table have been rescued just days before the barbaric Yulin festival begins in China. The animals were released from a squalid slaughterhouse preparing for the dog and cat eating festival which continues to spark global outrage. The frightened animals – 21 dogs, eight puppies, and five cats and kittens – were crammed into small cages together set to be bludgeoned to death.
Chinese activists, led by charity Humane Society International, arrived and negotiated the release of all the animals. Some dogs were found wearing collars, suggesting these are pets stolen by dog thieves to fuel the trade. They are now set to be adopted into loving homes yet to be selected around the world, including in the UK. Peter Li, director of Humane Society International for China, said: “The place was very dirty and horrendous.
“When we saw the dogs, especially the puppies jumping and fighting to get our attention, it was very hard to leave them in that place. Two of the dogs wore collars. Two other dogs had some kind of a leash on them but they were all scared when we unloaded them. They behaved like owned dogs and close to people. None of the dogs displayed aggression to us.”
The rescue at the warehouse in Yulin, Guanxi province, comes as HSI aims to help poor Chinese people engaged in the brutal trade to change their livelihoods. Terrified dogs are bludgeoned to death for a to be consumed eaten in rural areas of China where their meat is considered a healthy summer food. Animal activists have recorded the traumatised animals crammed into cages before being brutally killed in front of one another in pens. Their hair is then burned off with a blow torch and their bodies thrown into boiling water.
Dr Li added: “The police presence is heavy in Yulin right now and the atmosphere is very tense, so this was not an easy rescue. But we were determined to save animals from their gruesome fate at Yulin, and it was such a relief to leave the slaughterhouse cages empty for one day at least.”
This is absolutely bananas to me. And not like regular bananas. Bananas in pajamas. An entire province looking forward to eating cats and dogs? Which are prepared for them via blowtorch? That sounds identical to the plot of a cannibal horror film. Big ceremony coming up, a bunch of people get kidnapped from their homes and stuffed into cages before being beaten to death and cooked to the liking of the diners. Watch any cannibal film in the cinematic cannon and you’ll find this basic narrative structure. Dogs are friends, not food. Consuming domesticated animals is pretty much like eating someone’s adopted child. You can’t do that. Someone loves that child in their life, not on your plate.