Amid COVID-19 outbreak, China's dog meat festival begins
Despite the government's recent classification of the animals as pets rather than livestock, the dog meat festival has opened in China which is believed to be the country from where the deadly COVID-19 disease originated.
The annual 10-day fair in Yulin, a city in southwest China, was first held in 2009 to mark the summer solstice, reports Independent.
Controversy surrounds the festival both within China and internationally, as activists say that some of the animals are slaughtered inhumanely and that the event does not meet the country’s hygiene standards, reports the newspaper.
Activists also claim that the dogs are brought to the city in cramped condition.
An estimated 30 million dogs and 10 million cats are killed every year for the meat trade, mainly in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, and Laos.
Most of this trade is in dogs and cats stolen from homes and back yards, as well as owned and roaming dogs snatched from the streets, with well-established links to the spread of rabies, cholera and trichinosis, Humane Society International said in a statement.
Kelly O’Meara, vice president of Companion Animals and Engagement at Humane Society International, said: “Across the globe, nations are united in a collective response to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, including calls to close wildlife markets that can act as a petri dish for zoonotic diseases."
"Within that context, it is only responsible for governments across Asia to also tackle the dog and cat meat trades that, while not connected to COVID-19, undoubtedly pose their own significant human health risks, such as the spread of trichinosis, cholera and rabies that kill tens of thousands of people every year.
Image: GoodFon
"With hundreds of dogs at a time crammed onto trucks and driven across provincial and even international borders to filthy slaughterhouses and markets where these highly stressed animals are then displayed and slaughtered alongside myriad wild and domestic species, it’s easy to see how this trade is not only utterly brutal, but also the perfect breeding ground for the next serious public health disaster."
"New pathogens could jump to humans in a number of ways – a dog trader wounded during the day’s slaughter, a local consumer eating cross-contaminated dog meat bought at a nearly stall, or a tourist breathing in microscopic blood droplets as they sight-see in the market.
"This is no time for complacency or turning a blind eye; the dog and cat meat trades need to be shut down with urgency," Kelly O'Meara said.
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