The ‘festival’
The Lychee and Dog Meat Festival, held every year in a small town in the largely rural and poor Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, sees thousands of canines butchered and eaten. The controversial event, which took place this year on June 22, is ostensibly held to mark the summer solstice. Here, people toast over a dog meat dish at a restaurant in Yulin. 
Culture or business?
Locals say that eating dog meat is no different from pork and is traditional during the summertime. But animal rights activists claim the festival has no cultural value and was merely created to boost business. Eateries reached by telephone by AP news agency reported brisk business during the event. 
Protests
Activists, who say the festival is cruel, traveled to the city to hold demonstrations. The campaigners held signs reading “Crack Down on Illegal Dog Meat Trade” and “Punish Illegal Dog Transport,” but the banners were quickly torn out of their hands by an unidentified group of men. Here, men believed to be plain-clothes policemen, snatch placards from activists in front of a city hall in Yulin. 
Saving dogs
Activists sometimes buy dogs to save them from the cooking pots. Dog lover Yang Xiaoyun traveled from her hometown, Tianjin, in northern China to Yulin and spent about 7,000 yuan ($1,150) over the weekend buying up 100 dogs at a market to save them, according to the news website163.com. Here, dogs purchased by activists to rescue them from dog meat dealers, are kept in a temporary shelter. 
Legal
The Yulin government distanced itself from the festival and announced new restrictions. Traders would no longer be permitted to slaughter dogs in public, place carcasses on display or serve meals outdoors, it said. But there is no law against eating dog meat in China. Here, vendors sell dog meat at a market. 
Millions
As many as 10 million dogs are believed to be killed for their meat annually in China, with up to 10,000 killed for the Yulin festival, according to the Washington-based Humane Society. While much of the meat comes through legitimate farms, many dog slaughterhouses are run privately and secretively to avoid scrutiny by food-safety inspectors. 
Dog ‘torture’ festival?
This year’s festival was also slammed by many Chinese web users as well as British comedian Ricky Gervais, who posted a series of messages on Twitter with the hashtag “StopYuLin2015,” writing: “It should be called a Dog Torture Festival. Because that’s what it is.” 
Changing views
Dog is eaten in some parts of China but is not a common dish and the Humane Society says the domestic and international campaigns to end the practice are having an impact. In 2011, a dog meat festival in Zhejiang’s Jinghua was shut down as a result of protests by Chinese campaigners, and in Guangzhou a dog meat restaurant that had run for 51 years was recently closed. 
A broader issue
Eating dog meat has become a controversial issue not only in China. Dog meat also remains a popular dish in other Asian countries such as Vietnam where it is considered to be an aphrodisiac. Over the past few years, an illegal dog meat trade has flourished across Asia worth millions of dollars, which critics say is unnecessarily cruel and carries a rising risk to public health. 
