Animal activists continue to express their absolute outrage, ahead of China’s Yulin Dog Meat Festival, set to start next week.
The festival looks like it will go ahead, despite legislation reportedly being introduced, to ban the sale of dogs.
That ban was supposed to have been instituted on June 15. However, subsequent inspections by activist groups indicate that there is fierce resistance to the ban, and that dog meat is still being sold in Yulin. Some say there is no ban at all.
The jury is out on what can be done to achieve the desired outcome for these campaigns. Activists are not convinced by the measures that have been taken thus far though. It would appear an acknowledgement of that is necessary.
Speaking to Forbes this week, Jason Baker, Vice President of International Campaigns at PETA. said: “We have spoken with several people working within the mayor’s office, the food and drug administration and the municipal building and no one seems aware of a Yulin festival ban.”
His concerns were echoed by Marc Ching, the founder of animal rights organization Animal Hope and Wellness. Ching claims government officials deny knowing anything about a ban.
Sean Long, of the Humane Society International, thinks that some progress is being made in this campaign though. While he was still fuming after discovering that dog meat was still being sold in Yulin, the outlook was not as negative as it had been in the past.
The jury is out on whether this will mean the end of the festival or not. At this juncture, there are strong indications the festival is going ahead.
‘It’s disappointing to see dog meat still on sale, but nothing like the amount we’ve seen in the past,” said Long this week.
“Business was slow at the market with far fewer buyers. Some vendors we spoke with said they believed they were allowed to sell dog meat again, and hinted that some kind of concession had been gained from the authorities just in the last couple of days.
“However, other vendors expressed doubt that they would be allowed to continue selling dog meat for long and said that there was so much genuine uncertainty that they had decided not to order more dogs in case they can’t sell them,” added Long.