MCLC: another dog-meat festival under attack

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Magnus Fiskesjo <magnus.fiskesjo at cornell.edu>
Subject: another dog-meat festival under attack
***********************************************************

For the MCLC list: Here we go again: Another Chinese dog meat festival is
under attack from activists, in Guangxi (one was closed down in Zhejiang
recently).

I for one sympathize with the local Guangxi guy who asked: "It is our
tradition and our right to eat dog meat. If we are cruel and brutal, what
about those who eat pork, beef and chicken?" said Wei Zhengde, a
28-year-old Yulin resident. . .
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-06/08/c_133391326.htm).
(Disclaimer: I'd say, one should be as nice to dogs as to ducks and
chicken and cattle and such).

See:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/06/20/animal-rights-
activists-target-dog-eating-festival-in-china/?hpid=z3
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/18/chinese-city-yulin-dog-meat-fe
stival
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-06/13/c_133404097.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-06/08/c_133391326.htm

and, Animal Asia joining the protest:

http://ymlp.com/zJvKol

The Washington Post report notes the backlash against activists from more
of the local "rednecks" (if that word can be used in China) who dislike
middle class citypeople-easterners telling them what to do (it evokes the
Appalachian conflict over pigeon-shooting, between middle class animal
activists and local Appalachians, which anthropologist Hoon Song wrote so
eloquently about in his book Pigeon Trouble -- though there it was about
exterminating vermin, not eating t).

The BBC also has an interesting report, linking to broader social issues
about status-pets, city-life and food customs, -- and on how it's OK to
talk of dogs and maybe elephants (though while the talking goes on,
Chinese-hired killers are massacring the last African elephants to
extinction, cf. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-26167893;
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27839502) :


========================================

Source: BBC (6/20/14):
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-27952543

Chinese dog-meat dilemma: to eat or not to eat?
By John Sudworth BBC News, Shanghai

The Chinese pet industry is reportedly booming - like almost everything
else associated with middle-class lifestyles in this country.
The veterinary and animal-grooming market is said to be worth well over
$1bn (£1.7bn) a year and is predicted to grow rapidly.

The latest trend? Dogs with perms that make them look like pandas.
So no wonder then that the dog-eating festival due to take place in the
southern city of Yulin this weekend is drawing more than a few negative
Comments.

The other thing associated with the rise of China's middle class is of
course the rise of social media, with something not far off 400 million
people now regularly accessing the internet via their smartphones.
So those not preening their pooches have been busily tweeting.

"I just want to say, have you ever seen a pig protecting its master? Have
you ever seen guide-ducks or police chickens?" one asks. "When you come
home, will your fish come and greet you at the door? Dogs are different."
There has been opposition to the Yulin festival before, but this year for
some reason, the outpouring of outrage on social media appears more
intense than ever.

Unwanted attention

In addition, the controversy has drawn interest from overseas newspapers
and broadcasters.

Of course, international animal welfare charities have long accused the
dog meat trade of using cruel methods of transport and slaughter.

A woman grooms a dog at a shop in Paris - 18 May 2014 Dog grooming became
popular in the United States before spreading to Europe - and now China
In response, there are reports that the festival quietly opened a week
early this year and that some restaurants in Yulin have taken down signs
advertising dog meat on the menu.

The practice of eating dogs in Asia goes back centuries.

The Yulin festival falls this weekend because, apparently, some people
believe that eating dog on midsummer's day brings health-giving benefits.
South Korea has in recent years faced a similar debate between, on the one
side, those with the new sensibilities that come with affluence and
urbanisation and, on the other, those defending traditional customs in the
face of globalisation.

A chef prepares a meal using dog meat at a restaurant in South Korea - 5
July 2005 Dog meat has long been a familiar ingredient in meals in
countries like China and South Korea

But while the practice of dog-eating lingers on, there has also long been
a concern about the way the debate is framed by the outside world.
Heading off on a reporting assignment to Seoul a few years back, I had
lunch in London with a Korean diplomat who begged me never to do a Korean
dog-meat story.

He may not have liked the dog industry himself, he said, but he felt that
there was a disproportionate amount of international media attention paid
to the issue.

A complex cultural difference was being turned it into a crude racial
stereotype, the diplomat said.

Social pressure

If there are such arguments being made in China today then they're being
drowned out by the barrage of anti-dog meat opinion online.

The 10,000 dogs eaten each year at the Yulin festival may pale into
insignificance compared with the 1.7 million pigs that end up on dinner
tables every day in China.

However it seems likely that the pressure will prevail in the end. In
2011, the Chinese province of Zhejiang banned a similar festival.
For now it is a topic on which the Chinese authorities are allowing the
country's netizens to vent.

But the issue of animal rights is one thing.

There can be no social media campaign for, say, the half a million people
in China that Amnesty International estimates are currently enduring
punitive detention without charge or trial.

Yulin's dogs may be a reminder of the extraordinary speed with which moral
and social concerns can rise to nationwide prominence.

But as China's middle classes grow ever larger so the Communist Party
employs an ever-growing army of censors to ensure they know well the
limits of their newfound voice.