Urge China to stop Yulin’s dog and cat meat cruelty!

Every June, the dog and cat meat trade intensifies in China’s city of Yulin. Truckloads of dogs and cats will be driven long distances in horrific conditions to be brutally slaughtered for their meat. 

Not only is this cruel trade inconsistent with growing Chinese public concern for animal welfare, with pets being stolen for the trade and suffering terrible abuse, but it also runs contrary to China’s public health and safety regulations. Stopping the slaughter of dogs and cats in Yulin and across China once and for all would protect both people and animals. 

Please urge China to end the animal welfare and public health nightmare of Yulin’s dog and cat meat trade. 

Your message:

Subject: Please end the animal welfare and public health nightmare of Yulin’s dog and cat meat trade 

Dear Premier Li Qiang, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, 

We write to you with an urgent appeal to protect the health and welfare of China’s citizens and uphold animal welfare by stopping the annual Yulin dog and cat meat trade "festival" in June.  

Every year truckloads of dogs and cats—many of them stolen pets—are driven long distances across provincial borders without legally required quarantine documents to be brutally slaughtered for their meat in Yulin in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Not only will these animals suffer enormously but the event also spreads diseases such as deadly rabies, all for the sake of a dog and cat meat trade that operates outside of the law and which the majority of people in China don’t support.  

In April 2020, the Chinese government told the world “with the progress of human civilization and the public's concern and preference for animal protection, dogs are our companions, not food.” If Yulin’s mass dog and cat slaughter continues, it would defy this statement. Moreover, the Chinese government advocates for the development of “civilized cities” that embody high standards of public morality, social values and ethical conduct. The continuation of the "festival" in Yulin city is in stark contradiction to this national vision.  

We respectfully urge you to end the mass slaughter and consumption of dogs and cats in Yulin and across the whole of China to protect citizens from the danger of rabies and support the public’s concern in China for dogs and cats to be protected from the meat trade.  

I stand in solidarity with the millions of people in China, across Asia, and around the world who want to see China take a leading role in ending the brutal and dangerous dog and cat meat trade.