A woman walks past a dog vendor waits for buyers next to the dogs in a cage for sale at a market during a dog meat festival in Yulin in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Seeking to end what they call a cruel and unsanitary ritual, animal rights activists are working to end an annual dog meat feast in the southern Chinese town. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
YULIN, China — A city in southern China has gone ahead with an annual dog-meat eating festival despite heavy criticism and protests from animal rights activists.
The event this week in the city of Yulin has come to symbolize the cruelty and lack of hygiene associated with the largely unregulated industry.
Activists on Tuesday bought dogs from dealers who had been planning to slaughter them, while local residents complained that outsiders were ruining what they consider a local tradition.
An estimated 10-20 million dogs are killed for their meat each year in China, and the Yulin event has become a lightning rod for criticism. Many of the dogs are believed to have been pets stolen from their owners.
The local government has in recent years sought to disassociate itself from the event.
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