More than 100 dogs rescued from Chinese meat festival to find new lives in Canada
TORONTO — An animal protection organization says more than 100 dogs who were destined for a Chinese dog meat festival have landed in Canada to begin new lives.
Rebecca Aldworth, the executive director of Humane Society International Canada, said 110 dogs landed in Toronto on Thursday night after being rescued from an annual dog meat festival in Yulin, China earlier this year.
Under the Yulin tradition, eating dog and lychee and drinking liquor on the solstice is supposed to make people stay healthy during winter. An estimated 10 to 20 million dogs are killed for their meat each year in China, and the event has come to symbolize cruelty and a lack of hygiene associated with the largely unregulated industry.
It’s become a lightning rod for criticism in recent years, as celebrities like Matt Damon, Joaquin Phoenix and Kate Mara have teamed up to protest the tradition.