Misplaced confrontation at Yulin’s “Dog Meat Festival”

A misplaced confrontation at Yulin’s “Dog Meat Festival”

It’s understandable that you love dogs, but because you love and protect dogs, you rush to the highway to stop dog-selling vehicles, and rush into businesses to obstruct them. The sale of dog meat and the ban on the purchase of dog meat are themselves questionable. And personal eating habits should also be respected.

On the basis that the animal protection law has not yet been enacted, and there are no legal regulations such as dog slaughter and quarantine, the people should not eat dog meat and question the government’s inaction. This massive civil dispute has no solution in the end.

Dog Meat Fans: ?You are against eating dog meat, why are you not against eating beef? Why don’t you care about killing seals in Canada?

Dog Meat Fans: ?Dogs are friends of mankind?,?I am China People only care about China's affairs. ?

Livestock and animal inspection: The current law only requires quarantine at the place of origin for dogs, and there is no slaughter quarantine requirement. Therefore, law enforcement agencies cannot do anything that is not authorized by law.

The controversy over the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, which attracted attention in 2013, reached its peak in 2014.

After being bombarded by powerful public opinion, animal protection organizations besieged Yulin to take practical actions against what they saw as a bloody festival. In the eyes of Yulin people, eating dog meat is just a folk custom. The so-called "Lychee Dog Meat Festival" is just a name. In the eyes of animal protection activists, killing dogs is a crime.

The two camps derogatoryly refer to each other as "dog fans" and "dog meat fans". The difference between them is one word, but they are as powerful as fire and water. In Yulin, they kept confronting each other, but they often felt dislocated. First of all, the "Dog Meat Festival" that is the target is not an official festival recognized by the government. At least the government claims that it has never been held, so there is no way to ban it. However, the moral banner raised by animal rights activists makes Yulin people feel... But it is an offense to dignity. Finally, when animal rights activists use food safety laws and other laws as weapons to argue that dog meat has potential hazards such as quarantine, more facts point out that eating dog meat is not illegal as long as there is no prohibition in the law.

Just like oil stirred into water, after some confusion, the oil and water molecules are always in opposition to each other.

Crusade and Counterattack

On the evening of June 21, 2014, 71-year-old Li He (pseudonym) from Yulin heard the sound of dog meat prices being reduced. In Li He's memory, on the Lychee and Dog Meat Festival, the price of dog meat fell instead of rising. This was the first time in 2014.

For Yulin, the pressure from all parties reached its peak in 2014.

Zhao Wei and other film and television stars publicly opposed the dog meat festival, and members of animal protection organizations also rushed to Yulin to protest on the ground, rescued cats and dogs that were trafficked, and asked monks to save the slaughtered cats and dogs in the market? One after another has been exposed. A piece of news.

? It feels like a large wave of reporters are approaching. ?On June 20, Xie Jinhui, chief of the Coordination Section of the Yulin City Food Safety Office, said half-jokingly. In the minds of Yulin people, there were first opponents to the Yulin Dog Meat Festival in 2012. The arrival of animal rights activists Du Yufeng and Katayama Sora brought Yulin to national attention; after that, it could be ignored in 2013, even though the number of animal rights groups paying attention was increasing. , there was no nationwide opposition.

Only in 2014, the pressure of three years of savings suddenly burst out.

On June 15, before the official opening of the Dog Meat Festival, some scholars and lawyers in Beijing conducted a discussion on animal welfare and animal protection legislation: institutional reflection on the Yulin Dog Meat Festival.

In Yulin, the Action Asia Animal Protection Team and other organizations held the "2014 Yulin and Animal Welfare Salon" on the 19th, calling on the city to end the "Summer Solstice Dog Eating" as soon as possible, and received more than 60 animals from across the country. Support from conservation groups. In terms of public opinion, animal protection organizations have laid siege to Yulin.

Chen Er Er Dog Meat Restaurant, which has a history of more than 20 years, was renamed Xiang Meat Restaurant not long ago. Just like it, there are several dog meat restaurants in the food stalls on Jiangbin Road. The stores either changed their names or covered up the word "dog" with red cloth. Xie Jinhui explained that the government did not require stores to cover or replace the word "dog" on their store signs. "This is a spontaneous behavior of some businesses after receiving pressure." In fact, before the name of Chen Er Er Dog Meat Restaurant was changed, the owner received harassing phone calls many times.

?This is also to avoid irritating dog lovers.

?Xie Jinhui said that the government also banned street slaughter for occupying roads and being uncivilized. At the same time, it promoted civilized dining habits in the civil service system. However, this last article was rumored on the Internet to mean that the government banned civil servants from eating dog meat.

Various signs indicate that Yulin has made many changes under pressure. However, just when everyone thought that animal rights activists would launch a climax of action at the Dog Meat Festival, what was surprising was that Yulin people also started a "counterattack" on the same day.

On the morning of June 21, the Dongkou Market, which has been the stage for animal rights activists for many times, for the first time carried slogans from local people: "Return the dignity of the people of Yulin, defend human rights", "Strongly protest against the crackdown" Are these criminals who come to Yulin to cause trouble in the name of protecting dogs?

In fact, external public opinion also magically reversed. In the "News 1+1" broadcast by CCTV on the evening of the 20th, the harassment suffered by Yulin vendors was presented, hoping that people who do not eat dog meat will "keep the boundaries of the law".

The confrontation between the two sides reached a critical point when Katayama Sora came to Jiangbin Road that night.

As early as 2012, the performance artist Sora Katayama staged a performance art to apologize to animals in the Dongkou Market. Since then, Sora Katayama has been the most attacked figure. But this year, Katayama Sora was quickly recognized as he was walking on Jiangbin Road. Crowds of people gathered towards him like a whirlpool, and the fingertips of several young people were almost touching Katayama Sora.

After Katayama Kaoru’s death, the food stalls were still filled with diners, and the dog meat festival he opposed was still doing brisk business.

Why Yulin?

Opposing the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, Katayama Sora and Du Yufeng are two iconic figures. In fact, many places in Guangxi have the custom of eating dog meat. Guilin Lingchuan dog meat is much more famous than Yulin.

Yulin is actually only the eighteenth city I have visited. Katayama Sora said that since January 1, 2011, he has started a series of performance art kneeling to zoo animals in Guiyang, Chengdu, Qingdao and other places. "I have traveled all over China to apologize to animals." ?

Du Yufeng from the Boai Animal Protection Center in Guangyuan City, Sichuan Province, paid attention to Yulin because of the Jinhua Hutou Dog Meat Festival in Zhejiang Province.

In 2011, following the appeal of animal protection organizations, the Ganxi Township government in Wucheng District, Jinhua announced the cancellation of the officially sponsored Hutou Dog Meat Festival. Du Yufeng participated in this landmark event in the domestic animal protection movement. The next year, Du Yufeng wanted to see if the Jinhua government kept its word. She searched online for information about Hutou Town and accidentally discovered the Yulin Dog Meat Festival.

?I was surprised that there is such a festival. What surprised me even more was that some netizens said that this festival has existed for many years. ?After arriving in Yulin, Du Yufeng had the same idea as many dog ??lovers who later arrived in Yulin, hoping that the government would ban this festival. At this point, Yulin has been pushed to the forefront.

However, unlike the Hutou Dog Meat Festival, the Yulin Lychee Dog Meat Festival is not officially sponsored. It is not even a festival, but is just a term that evolved from a custom.

?Eating dog meat in Yulin started in the Ming Dynasty. ?Li He, executive director of the Yulin Culture Time and Space Research Association, said that this custom should be the habit of local ethnic minorities. The Han people have a saying that "dog meat is not suitable for banquets", but in Yulin, dog meat is often an important dish when entertaining guests and friends.