Dogs in China Saved from Meat Trade

This is a story about the struggle between the modern and the traditional in China. In eastern China’s Jiangsu Province some young animal lovers stopped a truck crammed full of dogs destined for the meat market. After many hours of negotiation they successful obtained the dogs’ release but had to pay a considerable amount of money to buy the animals from the trader.

They admit that this method is not a sustainable solution to what many are coming to perceive as an immoral practice whilst many others still support the trade and consume the meat. The law is on the side of the latter.

Without the western influence promoting the relatively new attitude to dogs as coveted pets perhaps it may have been possible for Chinese society to effect a more gradual process for changing the dog meat trade. By that I mean first aiming to improve the often very cruel practices, such as the transportation conditions highlighted in this story, whilst still accepting the desire and right of many to consume dog meat. However, the new generation of urban Chinese seem to have jumped over to the western viewpoint in a single leap whereby any consumption of dogs is wrong even if humanely farmed. Thereby, the chances are that this struggle will be a long one and probably increasingly acrimonious.

As the modern urban class where most of the power and influence lies, the dog lovers should eventually win this battle but probably not in my lifetime.