You've signed the petition, now what?
What else you can do to end the heinous Yulin dog meat festival and trade? In the wake of COVID-19, what does this mean for the 2020 Yulin dog meat festival? (June 21).
We were all relieved about the recent great news in May that two cities in China have passed a strict law to ban the dog meat trade: Shenzhen and Zhuhai. This occurred after the Chinese Department of Agriculture removed dog meat from the "edible meat" catalog. We were hoping that amid the COVID-19 crisis and these exciting new developments, the infamous Yulin dog meat festival would be banned this year.
"As of now, my intel is that the festival will still be on, but at a much smaller scale because of the pandemic"
- Officer Zhou, our Yulin contact
So, if the dog meat festival will still be going ahead this year despite a global pandemic, what gives us hope that this festival and the trade will ever end?
Meet A-Jiao (阿嬌) (far left in the photo), a young woman we hired to help at a Yulin shelter supported by Duo Duo Project. A-Jiao used to enjoy dog meat stew and just like most Yulin people, she didn't think anything was wrong with that. After she had a chance to be up and close with dogs in the shelter, she is a new person. "I feel awful and disgusted that I used to eat these wonderful creatures," she told Andrea Gung, our Executive Director (standing next to her) during one of Andrea's Yulin trips. A-Jiao now works to educate Yulin locals (in their own dialect) about how backward this practice is. She even recruited an elementary school Principal, Ms. Lee (next to Andrea Gung) to join our community outreach team. A-Jiao's transformation is our hope.
However, the fight to keep pushing on for lasting change in cultural attitudes and behaviors towards dog meat consumption will be a tough one.
We need more A-Jiaos!
Please donate whatever you can so we can hire more locals (like A-Jiao). When you support us with a one-time donation of $75 or more, you will receive a tote bag ($25 value) and 2 bandanas ($18 value) as a token of appreciation. Our tote bags are made by local folks in Yulin, China. Every donation helps Duo Duo Project expand programs, hire more passionate activists like A-Jiao, and provide income for local people who might otherwise be involved in the dog meat trade.
We need many more people like A-Jiao!
Thank you and be safe.
Duo Duo Project Team