Niihau Island Robinson family. Forbidden Islands Niihau and Kahoolawe
This topic is rather unusual - we will talk about the life of dogs in China. Why dogs? A lot has already been written about how people live in China, so the story will be about Chinese dogs). In today's China, dogs, like people, live in a variety of conditions - from flashy luxury to complete poverty.
Pictured is a bird dealer with his dog at Tienenmen Square in Beijing (photo by Christian Dowling) 
Girl with her dog dressed in warm clothes, Chengqing, China (China Photos) 
A student at a pet care school washes a poodle (China Photos) 
On the eve of Valentine's Day, a massive animal wedding was held at a Hong Kong supermarket. The ceremonies combined the traditions of the west and the east - dogs walked along the red carpet and they were given marriage certificates (MIKE CLARKE/AFP/Getty Images)
A dog walks outside a bamboo and wood shop in Chongqing 
A Tibetan monk plays with a dog while reciting prayers at Nanmo Monastery in Kangding. 
A customs officer checks boxes of clothes from China after finding sweaters and jackets filled with dog and cat fur. About 4,000 dog and cat fur jackets were confiscated at customs in Paris, clothes were sent to France from China
(OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images) 
Traders discuss the dog at Hing Yuan Animal Store. Dogs are bought here for human consumption. (PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)
Chinese chef Wang Wei Ming demonstrates a dish of dog paws at a Chinese restaurant in Tokyo. Most Japanese are unaware that dogs are served in Chinese restaurants in their country. Information about this spread after 30 dog heads were found in a garbage dump in Tokyo. 
Greyhound racing on a track in Songzhuan Village, Beijing. This village is famous for its dog racing 
A stray dog suffering from a skin disease sits in a cage at the Shelter for Sick Animals in Chengdu, China. 
Disabled dogs with special aids to help them move around in an animal rescue center. The center in Sihuan received about 100 crippled dogs and cats after the strong earthquakes of 2008 
A police officer with a dog outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing conducts a security check 
Children with a dog sit outside their hut in Beijing. (GOH CHAI HIN/AFP/Getty Images) 
Man with dog walking along railway in Shenyang, China (China Photos/Getty Images) 
Less than a month after China's animal rights activists celebrated the ban on eating dog meat. This, in particular, meant the cancellation of the traditional dog meat festival in Yulin, where thousands of animals die every year. However, right on the eve of the festival, the authorities suddenly backpedaled. They stated that such bans simply did not exist and argue that the dog meat festival is a local tradition that requires respect.
Authorities Chinese city Yulin, which hosts an infamous dog meat festival in the summer, denied that they had previously banned the sale of dog meat. In an interview with the Chinese press, a representative of the leadership of Yulin, a city in southern Chinese province Guangxi said that the dog meat festival is a local tradition and the authorities are not going to interfere with it. This statement was the result of the active dissatisfaction of local residents with the decision to close the festival. They accused the authorities of interfering in their private lives and trying to tell them what to eat.
According to previous reports, it was decided to ban the sale of dog meat from June 15 to 23, that is, for the entire duration of the festival. Now, however, a spokesman for Yulin's administration's propaganda department said in an interview that there was no such ban.
According to the official, the authorities only insisted that the people of Yulin organize the festival on their own as part of a local tradition. According to him, he does not know anything about the ban and believes that foreign media simply distorted the information.
However, many sources confirm that back in May, the city authorities gave traders a verbal order to stop selling dog meat in the city until June 23, that is, during the days of the festival. This fact was widely noted by the press all over the world.
Kimi, a local animal rights activist who has been advocating for animal rights for more than five years, says the ban has angered locals who feel the city has no right to tell them what to eat and what not to eat. Seeing such a powerful indignation of the townspeople, the officials preferred to retract their words.
According to Kimi, neither bans nor criticism will succeed in weaning the inhabitants of Yulin from eating dogs.
According to Kimi, in Yulin they are openly hostile towards visitors and journalists. Reporters were even forbidden to enter the local market. Anyone who had a camera in their hands risked that some angry merchant would simply smash it. According to her, police officers and agents of the Ministry of Security in civilian clothes were even on duty at the market, the purpose of which was to prevent people with video and cameras from entering the market by any means. Moreover, even dog owners and those who do not eat dog meat show aggression after the May events, because they are dissatisfied with the general condemnation.
Kimi says that while the dog meat festival is relatively recent, in the 1980s, the tradition of eating dogs has been around in Guangxi villages for hundreds of years. Therefore, she believes, the only way to wean the inhabitants of Yulin from eating dog meat is to teach them to see dogs as companions, not food.
This is how dog stew looks like in Yulin's best restaurant - Fresh Dog No. 1 restaurant. The menu also includes smoked dog meat with a crispy crust.
The restaurant is very popular among the locals. During the last festival it was overcrowded.
Today the restaurant is preparing for the next dog meat festival. As they say locals, even after the dog meat ban issued by local authorities in May, the restaurant continued to operate as usual.
According to some estimates, up to 10 million dogs are killed for food in China every year. Many of them are simply stolen from their owners. Even after Yulin authorities enacted a ban on eating dog meat, animal rights activists said it was unlikely to stop people from eating it at home or at private parties because people in rural Guangxi are used to the food.
Today in the market in Yulin, smoked dog meat costs about $8 per kilogram, raw meat - from $2.5 to $4.
Fresh Dog Meat #1, Yulin's restaurant, claims that the food here is prepared "from the meat of healthy dogs, painstakingly raised by farmers." However, many dogs, especially during the Dog Meat Festival, are simply picked up from the street or stolen from their owners.
After Yulin government officials retracted their own words about the ban on the trade in dog meat, angry animal rights activists came out to the administration building.
Jill Robinson, founder of the Animals of Asia animal protection organization, warns journalists that in order to stop the dog meat trade in China, one should look not at Yulin, but more broadly - at all of China, where outside of any festivals, in everyday life, people eat 10 million dogs a year. According to her, education is the only way to combat this phenomenon. “Eating dog meat is legal in China, which means people can get around any ban,” says Jill Robinson. “So we need to work with the authorities, with public organizations and society as a whole to change people’s minds by proving to them that dogs are These are friends, not food."
