(CN) Dog Meat Restaurant Ban 'Masks Cruelty'

[Guest guest]

By Sky News undercover reporter Updated:04:26, Tuesday March 11, 2008

 

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1308739,00.html

 

Restaurants serving dog meat in Beijing have been ordered to close for fear

of upsetting thousands of western tourists arriving for this year's Olympic

Games. But British environmental activists say the dog-meat ban is a

cynical, cosmetic move while appalling animal cruelty continues throughout

China.

 

Investigation agency Ecostorm gained access to China's dog-meat industry and

secured pictures of dogs being brutally killed with clubs and knives.

 

The images show the animals taking up to seven minutes to die before they

are boiled and skinned to be eaten.

 

Posing as British businessmen, investigators spent several weeks visiting

dog-restaurants and processing factories outside Beijing.

 

They claim the video is one of the worst examples of animal-abuse they have

seen.

 

Two weeks ago, Beijing authorities ordered a 'cleansing' operation, to rid

the city of beggars, prostitutes and the homeless. It is all part of China's

effort to present a clean image during the Olympics.

 

Less well known is the fact that dog-restaurants in Beijing are being

closed, to hide them from 200,000 western visitors that will arrive for the

games.

 

Travel a few hours west out of Beijing, to the city of Datong, and you'll

find what China doesn't want them to see.

 

On display outside dog-restaurants, the video shows dozens of dogs cramped

into wire cages, waiting to be killed and eaten. Dog is a delicacy in China.

Eating it is said to increase strength. It " warms the blood " and enhances,

" sexual prowess " .

 

At one restaurant, investigators filmed several of the animals being clubbed

and stabbed to death. Some are wearing collars, suggesting they were once

family pets.

 

The restaurant owner, Mr. Chu, claims his dogs are 'rounded-up' from the

local neighbourhood. Dishes on the menu include, 'Five Spice Leg'.

 

China has no animal-welfare laws and only a small group of animal-rights

campaigners.

 

Dogs kept in cramped cages

 

An Ecostorm investigator said: " Every aspect of this industry is barbaric.

The introduction of long overdue animal welfare legislation in China would

help end the cruelties of its dog meat trade - and the time is ripe. "

 

China's successful bid to host the Olympics has brought renewed criticism of

its human-rights record. Last month, film director Steven Spielberg quit as

'creative director' to the Olympics, to protest China's support for Sudan,

accused of genocide in Darfur.

 

Campaigners hope this latest video will bring the issue of animal-welfare

onto the agenda for change, too.

 

One Voice which commissioned the investigation said: " We hope this video

persuades the world to join our call for China to introduce animal

protection laws. For here is a supposedly modern nation that can host an

Olympics, yet has no animal welfare legislation whatsoever " .

[Guest guest]

>http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1308739,00.html

>

>Posing as British businessmen, investigators spent several weeks visiting

>dog-restaurants and processing factories outside Beijing...

>Travel a few hours west out of Beijing, to the city of Datong, and you'll

>find what China doesn't want them to see.

 

 

 

Datong is actually about eight hours by train or car

northwest of Beijing. It has historically been popular with tourists

because of the ancient temples and Buddhist statues there, and is a

longtime regional railway hub.

 

Raising dogs for human consumption does not appear to have

been noted by visitors until the mid-1990s, but came to

international notice in a big way when the " Saint Bernard Dog Meat

Breeding Center " opened in Datong in 1998. This attracted enormous

attention for several years, but most of the reports since 1998 have

been based on the original reports, rather than on new information.

 

This SkyNews report is the first new report about dog

production for human consumption that I have seen from Datong since

2000. Reports published in 2003 appear to have been based entirely

on the older information.

 

Datong is considerably farther north than all but two of the

other reported locations of large-scale dog meat operations, and

considerably farther west than any others in the northern half of

China.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

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