The Limits of our ‘Rights’

If you feed a human once, he might forget you in a day or two but if you feed a dog once, it remembers you for the years to come. Many a times I ask myself why a dog who is tortured by his owner comes back to him regardless of all the sufferings caused by the owner? It was recently that I comprehended the true meaning of unconditional love. They don’t care who you are? What do you do to earn a living? What is your salary package? And what is your bank balance? You love them once and they love you forever, its that simple. They would love the richest man in the world, the same as they would love the poorest man in the world.

The Lychee and Dog Meat Festival or the Yulin Dog Meat Festival began in 2009 and is commenced from 21 June to 30 June every year in Yulin, Guangxi, China. More than 10,000 to 40,000 dogs and cats are barbarously slaughtered in these 10 days every year. People drink bear and eat dogs and lychees according to the tradition.

Dogs are abducted from the streets or sometimes even from people’s backyards. They are cramped up in small metal wired cages and kept off food and water for days. They are then taken to be slaughtered in the market. Many of them die before being slaughtered and some are severely ill. They are then skinned, boiled and roasted using a blowtorch and then cut into pieces to be sold for consumption. Even when they are suffocating in those filthy conditions, they are continuously beaten using wooden and iron sticks. Some activists even found traders killing and selling cat meat.

It is considered illegal as there is no supervision and there is no proof if a particular dog actually belongs to the trader or is abducted from someone else. Also the government had only issued guidelines inspite of enforcing strict rules and regulations.

In 2020, the Yulin dog meat festival was conducted despite the pandemic and increasingly heavy international criticism. Surely people have not learnt a lesson from the global pandemic as initially the news had spread of COVID 19 being originated from bats in the Chinese food market. During the Yulin dog meat festival, dogs are slaughtered in terribly shabby conditions and there is a foul smell all around the market. These poor conditions can potentially become a breeding ground for yet another pandemic if appropriate actions are not taken by the Chinese government.

The people selling and consuming dog meat are very much cognizant of what they are doing but they say that it is a part of their tradition and they believe that consuming dog meat brings good health and luck. Also, another reason for the mass consumption of dog meat is because it is very cheap, even cheaper than beef. When interviewed, a few people also said that pet dogs are our companions but street dogs are for food. They don’t care about the dogs counting on their last moments in those grungy conditions and many were even found going insane in those terrible conditions where more of their kind are cruelly murdered infront of them but according to the people it is their ‘right’.

On the other hand, a decline in the number of attendees was recorded and there is still a hope that the hard work of all the activists, individuals and organisations will bring a change even if the change is very slow to come. Many activists and individuals even collect money the whole year so that they can buy and rescue the dogs from the festival.

It seems highly ludicrous when people say that it is their ‘right’ to murder one of the most loyal and loving animal for food and then drawing curtains on it in the name of tradition and rights. Who sets these rights? And who has given us these rights?

We need to educate more and more people about the current and future consequences of these festivals on the animals as well as on humans. The decisions we take today will decide the course of our future.