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THE DOGS AT Maoshan Animal Market huddle as one at the back of their enclosures. In one filthy cage, more than 100 crush together in a pack of wretchedness. It’s a humid spring morning, not cold, but many are shivering. It’s a different kind of warmth they’re seeking.

One by one, these trembling animals will be dragged out and slowly bludgeoned to death, while their terrified pack-mates look on — cowering and whimpering, wondering which one will be next. The market, on the outskirts of China’s bustling southern city of Guangzhou supplies the surrounding restaurants with dog meat, a specialty dish favoured by well-off provincials.

The locals believe the meat will taste better if, at the moment of death, the dogs are panic-stricken, electric with adrenalin. So their death comes slowly.

First a heavy blow to the snout with a rough-hewn truncheon resembling a baseball bat, then the dogs are left to absorb their pain for a minute or so, their cries curdling the blood of the other dogs in line.

Often they stagger up to their tormentors, tails feebly wagging, in the hope of a reprieve. But there’s no mercy here. The beating continues at a tortuous pace until the dogs, in and out of consciousness, finally succumb to the blows.

Such is a dog’s life as the people celebrate the Year of the Dog.

Brutally slaughtered

Hong Kong-headquartered Animals Asia Foundation is determined to make use of this auspicious year in the Chinese zodiac to push for a ban on dog meat. Founder and CEO Jill Robinson says millions of dogs are brutally slaughtered in China each year and most of them are deliberately tortured. Other killing methods include electrocution and hanging. Some are boiled alive.

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking. Before they arrive at the markets, these dogs often spend three or four days on the back of trucks, crammed together in tiny cages. They get nothing to eat and they don’t even have access to water. If they’re lucky, they’ll be hosed down just to keep them alive.”

Ms Robinson denies accusations of cultural imperialism from some Westerners who say that for the Chinese, consumption of dog and cat meat is the same as eating lamb or beef. “There is a very big difference. Herd animals have evolved to adapt better to live in groups and farm animals in general have been genetically selected to adapt better to captivity and farming practices,” she says.

“We certainly don’t want to imply that livestock animals don’t suffer — they do. But dogs are carnivores and they’re pack animals — hierarchy is important. In markets, crammed into cages, the competition for food, females in season and the stress of seeing other dogs slaughtered in front of them, leads to aggression and fighting.” Disease is also rife among market dogs, she says.

Sadly, this is just one of the injustices suffered by dogs in China. Pedigrees are routinely tossed out of middle-class homes as new breeds become fashionable. Starving strays are common on the streets and the authorities have no interest in humane euthanasia. Culling days are routine in southern provinces, when bands of municipal workers take to the streets to bludgeon dogs to death — both strays and pets — sometimes in full view of their horrified owners.

Ms Robinson, a Briton, who has been awarded an MBE for her work in promoting animal welfare, says that while there is a long way to go, the concept of animal welfare is gradually seeping into the Chinese psyche. “I feel the momentum for change is building. And the great thing is that it is coming from within China.” AAF has launched a China-wide campaign called “Friends … or Food?” to tackle the mammoth problems of cruelty and neglect and, specifically, to end dog and cat eating.

Cat and dog eating capital

Robinson has reason to be optimistic. Her group recently hosted the 1st China Companion Animal Symposium in Guangzhou — the dog and cat eating capital of China — and 32 animal welfare groups, representing about 250,000 people from around China, voted unanimously to push for a ban on the consumption of dogs and cats. “Imagine this forum happening 10 or even five years ago — it simply wouldn’t have been possible,” she says.

The most obvious hurdle facing animal activists is the dearth of legal protection for companion animals in China. There simply is none. Professor Song Wei, a lecturer in law at the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, Anhui province, says the country’s legal structure is so complex and so vast that the most effective way to tackle the problem is to amend existing legislation at the local level. Such laws currently focus on controlling animals and limiting their numbers, but ignore welfare issues.

“Along with legislation, we also need to see a shift in attitudes, and a change in our culture. We must combine a loving heart with the law,” Prof Song said, adding that such a shift had already started. “There has been much progress even in the past five years. Abuse cases today always spark huge public outrage. There is much more awareness of animal welfare.”

A new generation of Chinese is leading the charge says young and urbane Li Yunjun. He started Private Pet Home in Panyu, just south of Guangzhou three years ago. Li’s organisation rescues and homes strays, but focuses on education.

“My parents eat dog and cat meat even though they know about the cruelty. They do not accept what I do. They don’t understand why I should care about animals.” But Li says very few young, urban people would eat dog and cat meat now. “They see it as ugly and unacceptable.”

The practice is more common in the countryside, where men boast about the amount of dog meat they can consume in one sitting. Li says he is optimistic that dog and cat eating will eventually die out, but he says this will have to be driven by a change in attitudes, not just laws. “Corruption is still a huge problem. Laws would help, but those that want to keep the industry going just need to pay money.”

Pet ownership is for life

Guangzhou native Christie Yang Min says that change is unstoppable. Yang, who gave up a promising career with an international public relations firm to coordinate AAF’s China PR efforts, says the internet is a major factor in spreading the word and allowing disparate animal welfare groups to offer mutual support. “Cooperation is really important for any group working in a country as big as China,” she says.

Huang Xiaomao runs one of the many small groups scattered throughout the country that are using the internet to disseminate information about animal welfare. Fuzhou Pets in Fujian province teaches people how to care for cats and dogs and to instil in pet owners the idea that pet ownership is for life. “Our job is mainly education through our internet bulletin board,” she says. “In the future we want to establish a cyber radio station to talk more about pet protection. Education is so important.”

Guangzhou veterinary surgeon, Dr John Wu, agrees. “Most Chinese people think it is cruel to neuter their pets … or they think they can make money by selling the babies.” Dr Wu, who runs Leader Animal Clinic, said it was crucial to change this way of thinking now, while the trend of keeping pets was sweeping China’s middle-class.

Even in cosmopolitan Hong Kong, ignorance is widespread. “At first I was shocked,” says Briton Anneleise Smillie, who is AAF’s Education Director. “Many children genuinely believe that dogs have no feelings — that they are incapable of feeling emotions or even physical pain.”

She describes a recent exchange with children at a middle-range school.
“Can Mao Mao feel sad?”
“Noooooo!”
“Can Mao Mao feel happy?”
“Noooooo!” the children chant again, giggling at the absurdity of the notion.

Mao Mao is a golden retriever on one of his first outings with “Professor Paws”, a programme run by AAF to encourage in Chinese children a lifelong respect for dogs — and to rid them of their crippling fear and misunderstanding.

Never touched a dog

Under the scheme, native English-speaking volunteers take their dogs into schools to give children the opportunity to chat in English and to pet the dogs — often it is the first time they will have touched a dog.

AAF’s Executive Director Annie Mather says it is often ignorance rather than deliberate cruelty that leads to the mistreatment of dogs. “Many Hong Kong people take their dogs for walks by carrying them, because they don’t want them to get their feet dirty and make a mess in their flats. They don’t realise that dogs need exercise,” Ms Mather said.

“One woman in Mainland China, who adored her little dog, washed it every day in dishwashing liquid. She really thought she was doing the right thing and couldn’t understand why it was losing its fur.”

It is in mainland China that the biggest challenges remain. Wu Jun of the Zhuhai Animal Protection Association in Guangdong province, says it is time he shared a shameful secret to illustrate the extent of ignorance that he and others fighting to end cruelty are facing.

“My wife and I once went to a restaurant and saw meat being sliced off the animals while they were still alive,” Wu says, struggling to continue. “I have not been able to tell this to a foreigner before. Dogs and cats can’t speak, but we can. So we must speak out even louder.”