These dogs were supposed to be somebody's lunch.
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| These are two of 29 dogs who arrived in San Diego last Thursday |
Confined in tiny cages at a South Korean meat farm, they were supposed to be made into
Gaejang-guk, a spicy stew that many traditionalists still believe will balance body heat during the summer months.
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| Dogs at a meat farm in Hongseong, South Korea |
Humane Society International and others paid the owner to start farming chili peppers instead of dogs.
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| The owner of the meat farm signs a contract with the Humane Society to close his facility for good. |
Twenty-nine rescued dogs arrived in San Diego last Thursday, and will soon be put up for adoption.
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| Arriving at the San Francisco Airpoit |
The Humane Society International is on a mission to
wipe out the dog meat trade. and are working with animal rights activists throughout southern Asia to rescue animals scheduled for slaughter. Since August of 2014, they've rescued more than 8,000 dogs.
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| Dogs on their way to market at the Yulin Dog Meat Festival |
Dog meat has been on the menu for at least 2000 years in much of Asia, Especially in summer, since according to local superstition, it warms you up and helps to ward off the chill of the coming winter. The meat is thought to be tastier if the dog suffered a particularly painful and frightening death--which happens to an estimated 10,000 dogs during the
annual summer soltice dog meat festival,
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| A Protester at the 2014 Dog Meat Festival |
But for the last few years, the festival has drawn increasing numbers of protesters.
It's mostly the older people in Asia who still eat dog meat. Most younger Asians do not, and many share the Western aversion to eating dogs.
More and more Asian celebrities are campaigning against dog farms and dog meat festivals..
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| Fan BingBing, the 4th Highest Paid Actress in the world, has spoken out against the dog meat festivals. |
Many Asians differentiate between pet dogs (purebreds) and "meat" dogs. But this perception is beginning to change. Keeping pets,
banned for many years in China, is now popular. And most people don't like eating their pets.
Authorities in Yulin Province deny the existence of Chinese dog farms. They insist that all dogs eaten at the festival were abducted from the streets. (How is this better? )
As more people understand the risks, as more people come to love their pet dogs, as the pressure from social media mounts, and as the last generation of die-hard dog-eaters passes into history, I believe that the dog-eating days of summer will come to an end.
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