Lychee and Dog Meat Festival, otherwise known as the Yulin Dog Festival, kicked off in southern China this week, amid a fevered pitch of demands from the international community for the city to halt the controversial event.
Critics of the festival, which this year have included celebrity condemnations from Matt Damon, Rooney Mara, and Joaquin Phoenix in a widely circulated PSA from non-profit organization Animal Hope and Wellness Foundation, have said that the festival is barbaric and baseless. Proponents meanwhile have argued that the practice of eating dog in Asia is a cultural one that predates modern history, and should be respected as a cultural tradition.
The festival has only existed since 2010, though dog hot-pots became popular within Yulin in the 90’s.
Consumption of dog meat has taken place in China and the rest of Asia since before written history, however.
Dog meat purportedly helps alleviate heat exhaustion, which has led to popularity on summer menus.
Beyond cruelty concerns, many opponents of the festival cite serious hygienic concerns of the meat itself. In line with the belief that tortured dogs will provide better meat, conditions with which dogs are transported and slaughtered are often poor and treated with little oversight. Many of the dogs are unvaccinated, and rabies is a high concern.
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