London’s Chinese Embassy Refuses Petition Against Yulin Dog Meat Festival With 11 Million Signatures
Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher was among activists attempting to present an 11 million signature petition to the Chinese Embassy in London against the Yulin Dog Meat Festival. Meanwhile in Beijing, the same petition was handed over to the representative office of Yulin city with more success.
Each year there is mass protest and disgust worldwide over the festival, in which dogs are gathered in cages and then brutally killed to be cooked and served as food. Gruesome images are shared across social media as more people join the fight to stop the almost medieval practice.
The festival is set for June 21 in Guangxi province, China, where thousands of dogs face death, and certainly not in a humane way.
As the date of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival approaches, celebrities and protesters gathered outside the Chinese Embassy in London, U.K. as Rob Flello, an MP for Stoke-on-Trent, took the signed petition to the door.
However, despite the fact that 11 million people had signed the petition, urging a ban on the festival, their disappointment was clear when the embassy refused to take it from Flello’s hand.
Flello shared a photograph of himself standing on the steps of the Chinese embassy on June 7, attempting to deliver the petition.
PISSED OFF
Chinese Embassy in #London rejected petition with 11M signatures 2 #StopYulin https://t.co/h3ihXzzweJ pic.twitter.com/pkcswWCMeW— The Animal Tribe (@AnimalsTribe) June 8, 2016
Flello was not alone as several celebrities were standing with him outside the embassy at the time, including Star Wars star, Carrie Fisher with her dog Gary, Victoria Stillwell, a dog behaviorist, actresses Jenny Seagrove and Lucy Watson and singer songwriter Sandi Thom, among others.
The protest, arranged by the Humane Society International/U.K., drew much attention to raise awareness to the cause.
Besides the London protest, around 24 animal rights activists in China also submitted the petition to the representative office of Yulin city in Beijing. Reportedly, the activists jointly represented three animal rights groups: Humane Society International, VShine and Beijing Mothers Against Animal Cruelty and they had more luck, as the petition was accepted.
As reported by the Hong Kong Free Press, the petition included a letter addressed to China’s President Xi Jinping, requesting him to put an end the Yulin Dog Meat Festival. The letter told Xi that by doing so, he would show “leadership in protecting the well being of both people and animals, and demonstrate that China’s global reputation as a progressive nation will not be besmirched by such activities.”
The crowd of activists carried signs reading: “Shame on Yulin” in Chinese, while other banners read: “I’m not your dinner.”
The Hong Kong Free Press quotes Xu Yufeng, founded of Beijing Mothers Against Animal Cruelty, as saying, “Yulin is a total embarrassment to China.”
“We urge the Yulin authorities to stand on the right side of history and to end the ‘festival’ in the interests of public security, food safety, social morality and China’s reputation,” she added.
There was also a rally outside the Chinese consulate in Toronto, Canada on Saturday, June 11.
According to a report by Dog Magazine, most Chinese people do not eat dog meat. Opponents to the practice have said that many of the dogs killed at the Yulin Dog Meat Festival are pets, stolen from people’s homes and still wearing their collars, or collected from the streets and therefore a health risk. However, according to supporters of the festival, eating dogs is no different from consuming any other animal.
As the date of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival approaches, many protests and candlelit vigils are planned to occur worldwide in hopes of finally stopping the brutal event.
[Photo by Neil P. Mockford/Getty Images]
