The Yulin festival takes place in Yulin, China every year starting June 21st and lasts for ten days. It is the annual dog/cat meat festival, which involves the incredibly inhumane torture of these helpless animals.
Claims are that they skin/boil them alive, and the pictures are ruthless. Of course, I am not going to post any of them in this article, because I believe the use of scare tactics to win over an audience is cheap, but if you want or feel necessary, Google. Over the past two years, the festival has taken a wide toll on social media, causing outrage.
It feels like the days leading up to the Yulin festival everyone suddenly becomes an animal rights activist for a brief period, and then forgets about it. There were rumours this year the the annual festival is cancelled due to a ban on dog meat, however, this is untrue and it is set to continue.
When I first heard of the meat festival two years ago, I was torn. I felt sick to my stomach and starting crying. It is normal for us to feel a certain compassion for dogs and cats. They are pets, loyal to us, we name them, care for them and love them. Even when not our own, we can still picture ourselves falling in love with one of these adorable animals.
However, I can't help but think that the bottom line is, we are disgusted by eating them because they are cute. This is where I find the major hypocrisy in our culture. I tried to justify eating meat after reading about the Yulin festival, and it was incredibly difficult. I was sure that the meat I was eating, HAD to be done in a more ethical way than what they were doing to the poor dogs in Yulin. We don't skin them alive at least, but I couldn't be more wrong.
It is hard to summerize the suffering that happens with these animals, especially in mass production. Cramped spaces, horrible living conditions, diseases and what I would call torture. I tried to justify it again, I could eat organic or even kosher meat, but there are two things wrong with this notion: there is no way to know for sure where this meat comes from.
Would I be okay with eating a dog if they were killed in a so-called "ethical" way? No. How can I call myself an animal lover and not treat animals equally?
I have not eaten meat since this day, and I am not trying to preach that everyone should do the same. This is just my personal opinion. Most likely, you are disgusted by the Yulin festival, and the photos make you sick. Most likely, you want it to end.
But who are we as a society to say that is is wrong, when we do the same thing everyday, just with different animals? Animals that are still intelligent, that feel pain and suffering, and lets face it, that are also cute!
It is important to reflect on ourselves in times when we hear about events like this one, focus on our reaction, and see if there is a way that we ourselves can change.
