386 Dogs Rescued From Truck Heading To China Dog Meat Festival

According to Humane Society International (HSI), Chinese police and animal activists have managed to intercept a truck carrying some 386 dogs to slaughter at China's annual Yulin Dog Meant Festival.

Reportedly, Chinese police captured the truck several days before the 2022 Yulin Dog Meat Festival started on June 21, the truck was first spotted 500 miles outside the city.

As per the publication, the footage was taken by the activists and it showed the moment when the Shaanxi law enforcement pulled the truck over on the road and confirmed that the vehicle was carrying dogs crammed into wire cages.

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Chinese animal activits have lauded the police for their timely response and stated that if all police took up this zero-tolerance policy then China's dog meat trade would come to a stop.

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Lin Xiong, one of the activists who saw the truck being pulled over by the police, said: "They had probably been on the truck for days, dehydrated and starving, many of them with visible signs of injury and disease."

"We could see their petrified faces peering out from the cages and we knew those dogs were headed straight for Yulin slaughterhouses where they would have been bludgeoned to death," Xiong continued.

Xiong said the response of the police was "really impressive," explaining that the driver of the truck was "unable" to prove that he "acquired" and "transported" the canines illegally.

"It was a very tense time for us but thanks to the authorities, these dogs are now safe in police quarantine where they can get food, water, and rest," they continued. "If only all police across China would have such a firm zero-tolerance approach to these dog thieves and traffickers, it would be the end of the dog trade here."

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As per the rescue report, the HSI stated that the Yulin Dog Festival trend began in 2010 to boast the declining dog meat sales and this is how the event has been attracting thousands of visitors each year. 

According to People, the publication also documented opinion polls that show that 72% of citizens in Yulin don't regularly eat dog meat and that the resistance to the practice is now expanding across China.

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China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs officially declared in 2020 that dogs are companion animals and additionally, that same year, two Chinese cities - Shenzhen and Zhuhai - prohibited the consumption of both dog and cat meat.

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Peter Li, Ph.D., a China policy expert for HSI which helps rescued dogs, said: "Even though most people in China don't eat dogs, dog-eating hotspots in the south such as Yulin do still exist, and millions of dogs continue to suffer terribly."

"I'm so proud of the Chinese activists who are standing up for these animals, and the police whose response was absolutely vital, because without them these dogs would already be dead on the kill floor of a Yulin slaughterhouse," he added.

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