The truck held 1,400 animals kept in cages cramped together. A total of 370 animals died while on board the truck after suffering from open wounds, respiratory disease, dehydration and broken bones, a statement from Humane Society International (HSI), an animal welfare group, said.
The footage shared by Humane Society International shows the cats and dogs once they had been rescued by Capital Animal Welfare Association (CAWA), receiving emergency treatment.
The animals were headed for slaughterhouses in Yulin, in southern China—an area notorious for the dog and cat meat trade. There is no nationwide ban on the consumption of dog and cat meat in China. But the Ministry of Agriculture dubs the animals companion animals, rather than livestock. In Yulin, there is an annual Lychee and Dog Meat Festival that takes place in June where people gather to eat the meat.
CAWA’s Hao Da-yue was present at the rescue and said in a press release that she had never seen “such a shocking scene.”
Hao said “the smell of death, diarrhea and vomit was overwhelming.”
“I think it’s hard for people to really take on board the enormous scale of the dog and cat meat trades in China. It’s not until a truck interception like this happens that the wider world is confronted with the shocking reality, because the truth is that even a truck of this size is a drop in the ocean,” Wendy Higgins, HSI’s director of international media, told Newsweek.
Despite there being no ban on eating the animals, dog and cat slaughterhouses still break the law. This is because they are killing animals not legally recognised as livestock.
The truck was intercepted on its way to Yulin by police. Animal activists arrived at the scene to find dead bodies of cats and dogs.
Activists attempted to rescue as many animals as possible by administering emergency treatment at the roadside.
“I saw a number of dogs and cats die on the roadside despite desperate attempts to help them, there was nothing that could be done but hold them as they passed away. Activists worked with tears in their eyes, many clearly shocked by what they were witnessing,” Hao said. “The world needs to see how these poor dogs and cats suffer for China’s meat trade. Such appalling cruelty brings shame on China and shame on the majority of Chinese people who want nothing to do with this despicable trade.”
Surviving animals were taken to temporary holdings to await pick-up from local shelters. It is likely many of the animals were stolen pets.
“Millions of cats and dogs are snatched and killed for meat every year. As horrific as it is to see, change in China really does need to come from within and so the most effective advocacy we can do is to support those Chinese animal groups and activists working so hard to create that change,” Higgins said.
“The Chinese groups with which HSI works, actively engage with law enforcement so that when these interceptions happen, the officers on the ground know the relevant laws they can apply to confiscate animals or seek prosecutions. Those are not animal welfare laws, which are so desperately needed, but they are at least legal instruments that can be used to crack down on this cruel trade.”
Newsweek contacted China’s Foreign Ministry for comment.
