Sunday 11 January 2009

Trading for meat



Animals Asia Foundation has rescued 149 dogs from an illegal trader in the Sichuan province in China after a tip-off. Local officials discovered this illegal trade and were able to confiscate the dogs. The dogs, crammed together in tiny cages, had been bound for a meat market in the southern city of Guangzhou, China’s dog-eating capital.
Animals Asia’s Founder and CEO, Jill Robinson, welcomed the 149 dogs in the AA’s rescue centre and had this to say when the truckloads arrived: “The dogs were in an appalling condition, many of them very thin and clearly in shock. I hate to think how long they had been in those cages, many of them packed in so tightly that they were piled on top of each other. We heard terrible screams coming from some of the cages, where terrified dogs were biting each other.”
She said many of the dogs were wearing collars and were possibly stolen pets; some were pure-breeds, including two dalmatians and a chocolate labrador; others had been collected as strays from the streets. She appealed to families in Pengzhou that had lost their dogs to contact the rescue centre. Animals Asia had recently built a spacious quarantine area where the dogs were welcomed at Qiming Rescue Centre to provide temporary shelter for dogs it had rescued from the Sichuan earthquake. “Luckily most of those dogs have since been adopted or reclaimed by their families,” Ms Robinson said. “So we have room to house these new dogs while they recover from this terrible trauma and await adoption.” The foundation will provide ongoing medical care and funding for dog food.
Dogs are eaten in China year-round, but more so during the cold winter months.
Dogs are often slowly beaten to death in the misguided belief that “torture equals taste”.

2 comments:

Whispering Walls said...

Aargh! Presumably then some people are licensed to farm dogs for restaurants?

Eurodog said...

WW, I'd rather not think about that but I fear you are right.