Under protest, dog meat festival begins in China

                      
Sellers exposes prisoners dogs in cages the day before the dog meat festival in the Chinese city of Yulin

It began on Tuesday (21) the controversial and largest culinary festival of dog meat in the Chinese city of Yulin, which is 200 kilometers south of the capital, Beijing. Even with dozens of protests, the event began without major incident and must shoot down, throughout the month, more than 10,000 animals under torture methods.

Among the groups that promote more demonstrations against the festival, is the Humane Society International (HSI). This year, the organization had international celebrity collaboration to raise awareness of the ill-treatment of dogs and managed to gather more than 11 million signatures on a petition calling for the end of the event.

In addition, the agency rescues or paid to traders for dogs that are in cages to be slaughtered. Although not cancel the festival, international pressure is beginning to take effect. The local government, who always tried to distance the organizers, asked for the restaurants serve the dishes only in "closed places", and restrict the consumption of meat in the streets.

HSI and other animal advocacy organizations, denounce it, and go through beatings, which according to local tradition makes the meat more tender, the dogs used in the preparations are stealing fruit to Chinese homes or removed from streets in unsanitary conditions .

The annually held festival always starts at the summer solstice, and the participants believe that the flesh of dogs helps to combat the heat and brings benefits to the human body.

Besides this particular time, it is believed that between 10 million and 20 million dogs are euthanized every year in China, and about 30 million are consumed annually throughout Asia, especially in South and North Korea.