China is the world’s second-largest country by land area and the third-largest by total area after Russia and Canada covering approximately 9.6000,000 square kilometers. The population is a staggering  1.4 billion humans and it is estimated that 25000-30000 dogs are being slaughtered DAILY for food in China, the world’s largest consumer of dog meat. In a recent survey, 69% of Chinese claimed never to have eaten it at all, with over 50% of people saying it should be banned altogether. 

However, the problem can quickly be perceived as even more murky and troublesome. 

On 29th May 2020 – China’s publication of a new National Catalogue of Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources announced that dogs are no longer classified as livestock and are instead recognized as companion animals. In theory, it should mean that dogs can’t be reared as food animals and that dog meat cannot be commercially sold to the public.

Yet there has been no significant improvement since their classification was changed from Livestock to companion animals. Dogs and cats continue to be treated as livestock just as they were previously. In China animal abuse is more rampant and without any condemnation or penalty due to a lack of animal protection laws (apart from one narrow law protecting certain wildlife.  

The slaughter of dogs in China is a brutal commercial enterprise in which 10 million dogs are mercilessly killed each year to supply restaurants and meat markets. Opportunistic criminal gangs will kidnap any dog they can get their hands on, whether it is a stray, street dog, or someone’s beloved pet. Dogs are rounded up and rammed into small wire cages, enduring long-distance journeys that can last for days. All without any food or water.  One additional and frequently overlooked issue, that also fuels the dog meat trade is the inordinate amount of dog breeders that callously dump cast-off and surplus dogs at butchers and slaughterhouses. We have also personally witnessed Chinese people dropping off their pet dogs to slaughterhouse trucks that position themselves at local markets at the weekend. Many people that consume dog meat believe that it has medicinal qualities and that it will make you internally stronger, increase libido, strengthen the immune system and even help to keep the body warm. However, the industry’s intrinsic cruelty is undeniable. In large slaughterhouses, dogs are often clubbed with hard repetitive blows and fustigated before having their throats slit and being left to bleed to death. 

They are still moving as they struggle and fight until their very last breath. The handling is very aggressive, usually with metal tongs that grasp their fragile necks and toss them around like litter. Often they witness other dogs being brutally killed in front of them as they await their turn, paralyzed by fear they are then dragged to their deaths. There’s no escape. 

Can you imagine the fear these defenseless animals experience?

In restaurants and smaller establishments inflicting torture before they are killed is a more common practice as the big slaughterhouses simply do not have time to do it. Repugnant practices of torture include boiling them alive, skinning them alive, stapling them down and cutting off their paws, tails, and ears,  gauging their eyes out, and sometimes they are even restrained and blow-torched alive.