|
Serving up dog food
home
 Terror:
dogs stuffed into a cage (upper) and a St Bernard (lower) await their
horrifying end at a Guangzhou market. It's a practice Prof Song Wei
(lower left) hopes will end soon.
Blog Updated September 17th, 2007
These dogs await their horrifying end at a Chinese market. Please lobby to end the dog meat and fur trade in China. Take action by contacting and supporting the WSPA: World Society for the Protection of Animals, Animals Asia Foundation (AFF), The Humane Society of the United States, The Humane Society International, and local concerned animal protection and welfare groups and citizens within your own local area.The article first appeared in the Herald Sun, Melbourne, Australia, on
Saturday, June 10, 2006. Little has changed. In this present year 2007, please continue supporting this worthy cause. Thank you. Serving up pet food (but it's not for the dogs)
It's the Year of the
Dog, but that won't
save millions of
canines from being
served for dinner, as
Angela Leary writes -
The
dogs at Maoshan Animal Market huddle as one at the back of their
enclosures. In one filthy cage, more than 100 crush together in
wretchedness. It's a humid spring morning, not cold, but many are shivering. It's a different kind of warmth they are seeking.
One by one, these trembling animals will be dragged out and slowly bludgeoned to death, while their terrified pack mates look on, cowering and whimpering, wondering which one will be next.
The market, on the outskirts of China's bustling southern city of Guangzhou, supplies the surrounding restaurants with dog meat, a specialty dish favoured by well off provincials.
The locals believe the meat will taste better if, at the moment of death, the dogs are panic- stricken, electric with adrenalin.
So their death comes slowly. First a heavy blow to the snout with a rough-hewn truncheon resembling a baseball bat, then the dogs are left to absorb their pain for a minute or so, their cries curdling the blood of the other dogs in line.
Often they stagger up to their tormentors, tails feebly wagging, in the hope of a reprieve. But there's no mercy here. The beating continues at a torturous pace until the dogs, in and out of consciousness, finally succumb to the blows.
Such is a dog's life as the people celebrate the Year of the Dog.
Animals Asia Foundation, based in Hong Kong, is determined to make use of this auspicious year in the Chinese zodiac to push for a ban on dog meat.
Founder and CEO Jill Robinson says millions of dogs are brutally slaughtered in China each year. Most are deliberately tortured.
"It's absolutely heartbreaking," Robinson says.
 "Before
they arrive at the markets, these dogs often spend three or four days
on the back of trucks, crammed together in tiny cages. They get nothing
to eat and they don't even have access to water. If they're lucky, they
will be hosed down just to keep them alive. "
Robinson denies
accusations of cultural imperialism from Westerners who say that for
the Chinese, consumption of dog and cat meat is the same as eating lamb
or beef.
"There is a very big difference. Herd animals have
evolved to adapt better to live in groups, and farm animals in general
have been genetically selected to adapt better to captivity and farming
practices," she says.
"We certainly don't want to imply that
livestock animals don't suffer - they do - but dogs are carnivores and
pack animals. Hierarchy is important. In markets, crammed into cages,
the competition for food, females in season and the stress of seeing other dogs slaughtered leads to aggression and fighting."
Disease is also rife among market dogs, Robinson says.
Sadly this is just one of the injustices for dogs in China.
Pedigrees are routinely tossed out of middle-class homes as new breeds become fashionable.
Starving strays are common on the streets and authorities have no interest in humane euthanasia.
Culling
days are routine in southern provinces when bands of municipal workers
take to the streets to bludgeon dogs - strays and pets - to death,
sometimes in full view of their horrified owners.
Robinson, a Briton, who has been awarded an MBE for her work in animal welfare is seeping into the Chinese psyche.
"I feel the momentum for change is building and the great thing is that it's coming from within China," she says.
AAF has launched a China-wide campaign called "Friends or Food?" to tackle the problems of cruelty and neglect and specifically to end dog and cat eating.
Robinson
has reason to be optimistic. Her group recently hosted the first China
Companion Animal Symposium in Guangzhou and 32 animal welfare groups,
representing about 250,000 people from around China, voted unanimously
to push for a ban on the consumption of dog and cat meat.
"Imagine this forum happening 10 or five years ago. It simply would not have been possible," she says.
The most obvious hurdle facing animal activists is the dearth of legal protection for companion animals in China. There is none.
Prof
Song Wei, a lecturer in law at the University of Science and Technology
in Hefei, Anhui province, says the country's legal structure is so
complex and vast that the most effective way to tackle the problem is
to amend existing legislation at the local level.
Such laws focus on controlling animals and limiting numbers, but ignore welfare.
"Along with legislation we need to see a shift in attitudes and a change in our culture," Prof Wei says.
"We must combine a loving heart with the law.
"There
has been much progress even in the past five years. Abuse cases today
always spark huge public outrage. There is much more awareness of
animal welfare."
A new generation of Chinese are leading the charge, says young and urbane Li Yunjun.
Li started Private Pet Home in Panyu, just south of Guangzhou three years ago.
His organisation rescues strays, but focuses on education.
"My parents eat dog and cat meat even though they know about the cruelty," Li says.
"They do not accept what I do. They don't understand why I should care about animals."
But Li says very few young, urban people would eat dog and cat meat now, as "they see it as ugly and unacceptable".
The practice is more common in the countryside, where men boast about the amount of dog meat they can consume in one sitting.
Li
says he is optimistic the practice will eventually die out, but it will
have to be driven by a change in attitudes, not just laws.
"Corruption is still a huge problem," he says.
"Laws would help, but those that want to keep the industry going just need to pay money."
Guangzhou native Christie Yang Min says that the change, while slow, is unstoppable.
Yang,
who co-ordinates AAF's China PR efforts, says the internet is a major
factor in spreading the word and allowing animal welfare groups to
offer mutual support.
"Co-operation is really important for any group working in a country as big as China," she says.
Even in cosmopolitan Hong Kong, ignorance is widespread.
"At first I was shocked," says Briton Anneleise Smillie, AAF's education director.
"Many children genuinely believe dogs have no feelings, that they are incapable of feeling emotions or even physical pain."
Under
a program run by AAF, native English-speaking volunteers take their
dogs into schools to give children the chance to chat in English and to
pat the dogs.
Often it is the first time they will have touched a dog.
AAF
executive director Annie Mather says it is often ignorance rather than
deliberate cruelty that leads to the mistreatment of dogs.
"Many
Hong Kong people take their dogs for walks by carrying them because
they don't want them to get their feet dirty and make a mess in their
flats," Mather says.
"They don't realise that dogs need exercise."
_____________________________________________________
Blog Updated September 17th, 2007
HSUS >> About Us >> Humane Society International (HSI) >> Animal Cruelty Issues from Around the World
Dying for Fur: Recent Investigation Shows Cruelty at Chinese Fur Farms
China’s Fur Farms
Imagine buying a child’s toy or a piece of furniture, never
realizing you are actually buying a product containing fur from a
Chinese fur farm—fur that was once a terrified Arctic fox, held in a
wire cage, abused, and eventually skinned alive.
Eighty-five percent of the world’s fur comes from fur farms. China
has become the world’s largest exporter of fur, largely due to the
country’s absence of animal welfare protection and surplus of cheap
labor.
Demand for fur from China, mostly from Europe and the United States,
has grown in the last ten years—the result of heavy investment in
marketing campaigns by a global fur industry aiming to make fur more
socially acceptable. The fur industry has also developed a wider range
for fur products in international commercial markets—products with
smaller price tags and less obvious connections to the furry faces that
have caused them so much trouble over the years.
The Investigation: What They Witnessed
The rapid growth in fur farming and lack of animal welfare regulation in China prompted Care for the Wild, EAST International and the Swiss Animal Protection (SAP) to collaborate on an investigation throughout 2004 and January of 2005. The investigation, Fun Fur? A Report on the Chinese Fur Industry,
exposes the horrors inflicted on animals at Chinese fur
farms.Investigators for the Fun Fur? report obtained photos and video
at fur farms throughout the Hebei province of Eastern China. Visited
farms each held between 50 and 6,000 frightened and abused animals.
Investigators documented Red foxes, Arctic foxes, raccoon dogs, minks,
and rex rabbits manifesting pathological behaviors, high cub mortality
rates and infanticide—symptoms of a lifetime of abuse. They tracked the
animals as they were transported for sale under brutal conditions, and
were skinned, often alive, adjacent to the wholesale markets where
pelts are sold between the months of November and March.
China’s lack of animal welfare standards allows millions of animals
to live out their entire lives cramped in rows of tiny wire cages.
These caged animals pace, nod, and circle their heads repeatedly in
signs of extreme anxiety. Others, overwhelmed by the conditions,
develop learned helplessness, huddling in their cages and demonstrating
no signs of interest in the activity around them.
Before sale at markets, animals are removed from cages with metal
tongs around their necks and carried by their hind legs for skinning
and slaughter. Instead of killing the animals humanely, workers often
stun them with repeated blows to the head using wooden clubs, or by
swinging them by the hind legs and beating their heads on the ground.
Investigators witnessed a significant number of animals that were
still alive when the skinning process began—starting with a knife at
the rear of the belly and ending with the fur being pulled over the
animal’s head. After the skin was removed, investigators taped animals
being thrown on a pile of other carcasses. These animals were still
breathing, had a heartbeat, and continued moving and blinking for
between five to ten minutes after their skin had been ripped from their
bodies.
The success of fur industry campaigns and new manufacturing methods
to make fur socially acceptable encourages the continued cruelty at
Chinese fur farms and around the world. Fun Fur? reports that; “Many
shoppers, who might flinch at buying a full-length fur coat, might
still be seduced by a coat with a fur collar, a parka with fur trim
around the hood, a scarf, or wrap, or a handbag with fur detail.
&The animal connection may be less apparent with fur that has been
shaved, knitted or dyed, or combined with other materials.”
Shop Smarter
Some consumers may never suspect that they are buying fur. Items as
inconspicuous as children’s toys and furniture made with fur are
turning up in stores. And these products are not always labeled. Each
of these items—the
trim on a coat, the lining of a glove or a child’s toy—represents the
cruelty in the life and death of an animal farmed for its fur.
Become an educated, active consumer and help end the suffering of
animals on Chinese fur farms. Avoid any product with fur trim.
Manufacturing techniques like dying often fool shoppers into thinking
they are buying fake fur. Ask store managers if they know how their fur
products are labeled and where the fur comes from. You can make them
aware of the cruelty on Chinese fur farms and the blood trail behind
the products they sell.
Take Action
Appeal to the source—let the Chinese government know that allowing
the continued suffering of animals for fur is unacceptable in light of
China’s international standing.
Write To:
Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong
2300 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20008
Minister Bo Xilai
No.2 Dong Chang’an Avenue
Beijing, China 100731
Write a letter to both the Chinese Minister of Commerce and the
Chinese Ambassador to the United States. Express your concerns and urge
them to recognize that the inhumane treatment of animals on Chinese fur
farms shows a lack of understanding of acceptable animal husbandry
techniques. As the largest exporter of fur, and the biggest fur trade
production and processing country in the world, China has the
opportunity to make an enormous, positive impact on the lives of
millions of animals.
WARNING - Disturbing ImagesIn January 2005, Care for the Wild, EAST International and the Swiss Animal Protection released their wrenching findings from Fun Fur? A Report on the Chinese Fur Industry. The report and video investigators released show extremely graphic images that some people may find distressing.
_________________________________________________ |
|
