Dog Meat Festival Held Amid Growing Protests

[MachineGhost]

[quote=http://itsnofestival.animalsasia.org/]The barbaric Yulin dog meat festival went ahead as planned earlier this week – despite growing protests from within China and around the world. An estimated 2,000 dogs – most of them stolen companion animals or strays – were tortured and brutally slaughtered for the table.

But the event was far smaller in scale than previous years thanks to the widespread criticism. More than 130,000 people from around the globe signed our open letter to the dog meat traders, and Chinese people of all ages took to social media in their thousands to protest against the slaughter.

The Yulin authorities distanced themselves from the event by strengthening supervision of the market and banning the slaughter of dogs on the street. They also prevented restaurants from advertising dog meat. They are among a growing number of officials seriously concerned with the widespread theft of dogs and the transport of caged and sick dogs that clearly adds to the threat of rabies and other diseases.

Public pressure has already seen the number of dogs slaughtered at the annual event drop from around 10,000 to an estimated 2,000.

But 2,000 dogs are still far too many, and they are just the tip of the iceberg – up to 10 million dogs are slaughtered each year in China for their meat and fur.[/quote]

[Mountaineer]

At least the Chinese eat them or use their fur rather than needlessly killing them. 

"About 2.4 million healthy, adoptable cats and dogs—about one every 13 seconds—are put down in U.S. shelters each year. Often these animals are the offspring of cherished family pets. Spay/neuter is a proven way to reduce pet overpopulation, ensuring that every pet has a family to love them."

That is a similar number per capita for both the US (including cats) and China (dogs only) of killed pets.

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet_overpopulation/

And the dogs and cats have it relatively easy in the US:
USDA slaughter stats 2008
Cattle: 35,507,500
Pigs: 116,558,900
Chickens: 9,075,261,000
Layer hens: 69,683,000
Broiler chickens: 9,005,578,000
Turkeys: 271,245,000

Eat More tofu!  (unless you don't like soybean screams  )

... Mountaineer