FW: Media release: Animals Asia Foundation says cruel dog meat trade a risk to human health

[Guest guest]

12 May 2010

 

MEDIA RELEASE

 

Animals Asia says cruel dog meat trade a risk to human health

 

Transport and slaughter conditions for dogs (and cats) are so unhygienic

that they pose a grave risk to public health, Animals Asia Foundation

said yesterday.

 

Animals Asia's Irene Feng said that as well as being horrendously cruel,

the trade and consumption of dog meat was another " food scandal waiting

to happen " . She was responding to reports about a new book by national

hero Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut in space.

 

Ms Feng, who runs Animals Asia's animal-therapy Doctor Dog programme in

China and is also World Animal Day Ambassador for China, said: " When

Yang Liwei revealed recently that China's space team included dog meat

in their diet, I was a little shocked. There are so many health risks

associated with the farming, slaughter and consumption of dogs. I hope

our national space team will consider these issues. "

 

Ms Feng said there was no scientific evidence to support claims about

the nutritional and medicinal benefits of dog meat. " In fact there are a

number of diseases associated with the dog meat trade, such as cholera,

rabies and trichinellosis, and all of these can be transmitted to

humans. We also believe that in some areas, teams of dog killers use

cyanide to poison the dogs before selling them to meat markets, " Ms Feng

said.

 

She said dog farms provided optimal conditions for microbes to

reproduce, affecting animals already in a weakened state due to the poor

health and welfare conditions. The trade and movement of dogs over large

distances also increased the risk of disease transmission.

 

" Many of the dogs in the meat markets are stolen or abandoned pets that

have been rounded up on the streets - they are terrified and fight back

when traders catch them, so the cruelty involved in their capture is

terrible. They are beaten and clamped around the neck with metal hooks, "

Ms Feng said. " Dogs are our friends. They don't belong on the dinner

table. "

 

Animals Asia founder and CEO Jill Robinson said that as well as the

human health issues, the terrible cruelty involved in the dog meat trade

could not be ignored. " These dogs are piled on top of each other in tiny

cages and driven for days on the backs of trucks in the freezing

temperatures of winter without cover, or the scorching heat of summer

with no water or shade. Then when they finally arrive at the terrible

meat markets, they face more days of terror before suffering a

horrifying and brutal death. "

 

" Yang Liwei is a role model for so many young people and he is one of

China's greatest heroes, " Ms Robinson said. " We hope that he might

recognise dogs as the heroes they are too - they found survivors during

the Sichuan earthquake and protected people from potential terrorists

during the Olympic Games. Surely they deserve more. "

 

 

For more information, please contact Animals Asia's:

 

Founder and CEO, Jill Robinson: + (852) 9095 8405; jrobinson

 

Doctor Dog Manager China, Irene Feng: + (86) 133 023 03009;

ifeng

 

Media Manager, Angela Leary: + (852) 2791 2225; + (852) 9042 7740;

aleary

 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Dog meat is consumed as a tonic food in China, allegedly providing

warmth in the winter months, as well as combating fatigue, lower back

pain, poor memory and slow digestion in older men. (Paradoxically, in

the same continent, dog meat is eaten in South Korea during the summer

months to cool the body.) Dog skin and gallstones are used to invigorate

the body or heal sickness, dog penis and testes are used for impotence

and lowered sex drive, and dog kidney is consumed to cure impotence and

premature ejaculation. The bones of dogs are sometimes used as an

alternative to tiger bone to treat rheumatism. At least one company in

Jiangsu Province is attempting to market " dog brain powder " as a

treatment for various neurological disorders.

 

Cat meat is eaten during the winter months in China " to warm the

stomach " and delicacies include paws (stir fried with garlic), eyes,

stomach and testicles. Cat meat, which apparently tastes like tough

chicken, is often eaten as an aphrodisiac, or to treat rheumatoid

arthritis, though recent research has proven that cat meat is not

effective in the treatment of this illness. Cat consumption has

historically been confined to parts of Guangdong Province in southern

China, but has recently spread to other parts of China due to the

popularisation of Guangdong cuisine. Cat meat is also passed off as mutton.

 

Angela Leary

Media Manager

Animals Asia Foundation

Hong Kong Head Office

10/F, Kai Tak Commercial Building

317-319 Des Voeux Road Central

Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

Email: info

(852) 2791 2225

(852) 9042 7740