Reflections on the Yulin Lychee and Dog Meat Festival

I must warn you, prior to reading this, that there is extremely distressing content, and your discretion in reading it is advised. If you tend to get upset by reports of animal abuse, and I know it can be really hard to deal with once you have read it, then you might want to give this week a miss.

So. This week, as I sit here writing this, Yulin is once again taking place. I feel sick knowing that right now, hundreds of dogs are being boiled alive, skinned alive and blow torched alive, as they are every other hour of the day for all these days, in the tens of thousands. I have watched videos this week and recently and have seen perhaps the vilest cruelty. I cannot imagine what greater pain there can be, or a more horrible way to die. One particularly distressing video showed a dog, hog tied and in a boiling pan of water. As the person inflicting this torture moved around the dog, its tail wagged. Maybe this was either an involuntary reaction of the nerves, or an appeasement gesture, begging for mercy, which never came. I hope that the dog died quickly, as with them all, but something tells me this is unlikely.

If we had news of a serial killer, and details were released that they were skinning their victims alive, or boiling them, or blow torching them, we would consider them the worst of all psychopaths. We would take in all the information, and talk about it. When it’s dogs, we have a curious tendency to shut our eyes and ears to it. We try not to think about it. Perhaps it hurts us more when it is animals. But the consequence is we don’t do anything. Year after year, Yulin occurs again.

So what can we do? Sure, there are the petitions. I think there was some poignancy when along with a group of humans, four dogs, rescued from Yulin, delivered a 1.5 million signature strong petition to the Chinese Embassy in London. But can this work?

As you may have heard, and certainly as I mentioned in my last post, China removed dogs from the official livestock list, rendering it illegal to farm dogs. As predicted though, this has not stopped Yulin. China mentions that, as Yulin is not State run, there is some issue with intervening. They do not have the incentive to ban it. What incentive can there be?

 

All those people horrified by Yulin could boycott China. Do any of them really take care in what they purchase? As sales in Chinese produced merchandise drop due to coronavirus, it certainly is possible. Yet when it comes to the dog meat trade, I am not so sure that people follow through with their disgust. I have to wonder why. Maybe it is wrong to target the many people in China who oppose the dog meat trade by affecting their business, but the point is a message needs to be sent that, whilst every State is free to fulfil self-determination, so we are free to refuse to trade with them. I am afraid that in this World, money talks.

I have read much discussion about the dog meat trade, and there are many threads which appear, just a couple of which I mention here.

·         "China is free to eat dog meat, if that is what they want to do." True, although over 60% of Chinese people, according to a recent survey, oppose the trade.

·         "It is yet another example of Western Imperialism to try to end the trade." This is an argument I come across all the time in international human rights law. With some issues, maybe it is wrong for a Western democratic view to prevail over the East, but with others, such as the right to life, it is a common thread of humanity. And that is what is at stake here too. It is inhumane to relish the torture of an animal in the perverse belief it makes them taste better. If an animal is to die to feed a human, then let it be with dignity. This is not a peculiarly Western view. This is a human view.

·        " It is wrong to say what animals can and cannot be eaten." To those that then claim they don’t eat any animals, I have even seen the come back that they eat plants and bacteria, and therefore are just as judgmental on who can live and die. Firstly, let us consider the taking of non-animal life. No one can seriously say that there is no difference between a sentient animal and a lettuce. I won’t even give time to that argument. Secondly, there is the argument that if we eat cows and pigs, then we cannot argue against dog meat. I used to eat meat, and yet felt strongly about the dog meat trade. I did, and still do, believe there is a big difference and not just a cultural one. However, I did become a vegetarian to avoid the hypocrisy.

So why not dogs? Am I just saying that we should ban the cruel deaths and allow the dog meat trade? We are not going to create a vegan world in the near future, so certainly we should at least end the torture if not the trade. Some research suggests that dogs have conscious self-awareness (see the University of Portsmouth. I hope to add to this at some point). This would certainly raise questions over whether we should be killing them to eat them. Other research is now suggesting other species also have self-awareness. However, I do feel there is a difference with dog meat, and quite simply, it is the betrayal.

Dogs are unique. We did not domesticate dogs. All scientific evidence points towards a gradual friendship, built between wolves and humans. It was a 50-50 relationship where both parties decided they wanted to know the other. True friendship. Research is suggesting this took place perhaps 30,000 years ago, perhaps even in China somewhat ironically. Since that time, dogs have evolved away from wolves, they try to copy us, they can read our emotions, they have unique methods to communicate with us that they don’t use with each other. Other than us, they are the only species that forms a stronger bond with another species, us, than with their own. They have been given royal burials with their own tombs in Egypt. What went wrong? I am not saying that it is right to eat other animals, but that there is a good reason why humans should not be eating dogs.

There is a fundamental, qualitative difference between dogs and all other animals. They are our friends.

That’s all for this week. It doesn’t seem right to talk about anything else.

Tuk’s Law and The London Retired Police Dogs Trust

Gosh, not sure where the time has been going, but I seem to be rushing all over the place fighting to get through the daily list of tasks! I need to keep today’s blog entry brief, although I know that won’t happen….

In the news this week we see that China has published its list of authorised species for raising in agriculture. Any animal not listed is not authorised to be sold for consumption (my knowledge of Chinese Law is pretty much non-existent, so please don’t rely on my analysis). Dogs are no longer listed, and so this has been hailed as a great step forward in ending the dog meat trade. Sadly, there is no sign that Yulin has been cancelled. Cats are not listed on the published agriculture list, and to my knowledge never have been, yet are still eaten. So there are some genuine concerns that this move is more political game play in the international arena than it is actual progress. Still, it keeps the issue alive, and that in itself works wonders in keeping animals alive too.

Also in the news are the protests springing up world-wide in response to the killing of George Floyd. Firstly, Black Lives Matter. This is beyond doubt, and as a human rights lawyer I am appalled at this wanton loss of life. I also do not comment on whether the protests are right or wrong. However, it is completely unacceptable to throw bottles and bikes at police horses. There is no need for violence against police for the purposes of protesting, and there certainly is no need for violence against service animals who do not consent to even perform their work. This does raise the issue of whether animals should be in service, and I am leaving that discussion for another time. But for now, let us all condemn the actions of any protestors using violence against service animals, as there is no need for it in order to protest for racial equality.

Now I mentioned that I would be focusing on a petition each week, so this week I am bringing your attention to Tuk’s Law. This is named after a young rescue dog who was presented to a vet for euthanasia by a person who was not registered on the microchip. The dog was put to sleep without referring to the person who actually was registered. This is because there is no duty on a veterinary surgeon to scan the microchip of the dog.

I am horrified to hear that a cat has been euthanised by a neighbour, and a dog by the owner’s ex partner out of spite. As these people were not registered on the microchip, these deaths could so easily have been avoided. Tuk’s Law petition

asks that it be made compulsory for vets to scan microchips, to seek authorisation by the named persons only, and if there is a second name registered, they should be contacted too. Due to the difficulties in ensuring this practice of scanning takes place, it needs to be given the force of law.

Tuk’s Law is extremely important and I implore you all to sign it as soon as you can, and share that you have done so, so that others may do so. It is available at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300025

Currently, the petition has 33677 signatures and has until 4thSeptember 2020 to obtain the 100k signatures needed.

This is not the same as Fern’s Law which also deals with scanning microchips. I will discuss that petition next time.

Now to highlight the work of a charity to you. This week I am bigging up The London Retired Police Dogs Trust (LRPD UK), as this seems rather fitting with the issues surrounding service animals this week. We definitely owe service animals a lot of gratitude. LRPD (UK) is a charity that organises pensions for retired police dogs in the London area, and has Dame Judi Dench as its patron. Often, the handler would like to keep their dog after the dog has retired, which I am sure we can all appreciate, however they may not have the funds they need for things like veterinary care. These dogs do not get pensions! It is quite some oversight that we make these dogs work for us, but there is no provision for them by the State. That is where organisations like LRPD (UK), and the soon to be constituted Wessex Area Service Animal Pensions (WASAP), come in. LRPD (UK) is a great charity, and I had the great honour of presenting alongside them at the APDAWG Unsung Heroes event earlier this year. Please visit their website, and help out with donations etc, if you can. Their website is http://lrpd.uk/

As animal justice and ethical thought involves more than just law and helping pets, but also needs us to consider sustainability and the ecosystem at large, I thought it might also be nice to share with you a vegan recipe I have used recently. My partner is on slimming world but unlike me is not vegetarian or vegan, so it can be a challenge to find something we can both eat! I adapt Slimming World recipes where I can. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t, however this recipe definitely does I think. What is also great is that this is from their five ingredient recipes, so although it has been adapted to include more, it is still pretty minimal.

Spicy Cauliflower Bake

You need: Cauliflower (1 large head serves two, well in our house), ready mixed spice sachet (we use Moroccan spices), 1 tin of chickpeas (drained), 1 pack of mixed cherry tomatoes, one pack of Quorn chunks (frozen best, so they hold their shape), 1 small pack of spinach.

How to make it: This is really easy! Cut the cauliflower into large florets and boil these until ¾ cooked. Meanwhile make a slightly runny paste out of the spices and water. Toss the quorn chunks in this paste. Place the partially cooked cauliflower into a roasting dish that has been sprayed with low calorie spray, and place the quorn chunks in amongst this. Pour the rest of the spice paste over the cauliflower. Roast in the oven, mixing the contents once or twice, and after 15 minutes add the tomatoes and chickpeas. Roast for a further 15 minutes. Just before it is ready, pour boiling water over the spinach, draining through a sieve. Serve the bake by placing the wilted spinach over it, and serve with a jacket potato or similar if you need a bit extra.

 

This time next week, when I next publish a blog entry, the Breed Specific Legislation should have reached its 100k target. In fact, this should be later today, as it now has 98543 signatures!

You are welcome to comment below, but please #bekind to each other.