Woman Pays $1,100 to Rescue Dogs From Chinese Dog Eating Festival

Last week, we reported that thousands of dogs would be slaughtered and eaten at the annual

Activists from Animal Asia, Humane Society International, the social media campaign #StopYulin2015, and 70,000 protesters for #ItsNoFestival, among others, couldn’t stop the event from occurring this year.

However, a woman named Yang Xiaoyun reportedly bought 100 dogs to keep them from being killed and eaten at this weekend’s festival, according to AFP. Yang would not say how much she spent on the dogs, but it’s estimated that she paid around $1,100.

Yang, 65, is no stranger to the event. Last year, she rescued about 350 dogs from the festival, paying 150,000 yuan ($24,100) to keep them from their fate.

Yang traveled around 1,500 miles from her home in northern China to buy the dogs. She has stated that she wants to open up a home for the rescued dogs around the vicinity.

Yang isn’t alone in trying to help the dogs. Each year, animal activists descend on Yulin from all parts of the world to buy as many dogs as they can. Many of the dogs were either strays or pets who were stolen from their owners. Roughly 10,000 dogs are killed annually for the festival.

Despite the global activism, many people from Yulin say they won’t stop eating dogs. Liang Xiaoli, who had returned home to Yulin to take part in the festival, told Reuters:

“This is one of our traditions. They [activists] criticise us, saying we don’t have compassion or humanity, but I think every person has different circumstances. You can’t just lump all people together. For example, if I think eating pork is really brutal, then no one can eat pork. That’s not on.”

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