8 Years of Investigation of Dog and Cat Meat Trade

Since 2012, Animal Equality has been investigating the brutal dog and cat meat and skin trade, publishing a series of cynical investigations that have shocked the world.

The stories we have collected are astounding.

This first video is an in-depth investigation of dog meat slaughterhouses and markets in Leizhou Peninsula and Pengijang Province.

Our investigators traveled all over China and, with the help of brave local activists, secretly infiltrated the criminal groups that govern the dog trade across different parts of the country. country.

Our team has captured images of illegal slaughterhouses—places that are mercilessly filthy. At these facilities, dogs are beaten, manipulated, and treated like objects. They were kept in dark rooms where they lived among the dung and forced to watch helplessly as their companions were slaughtered.

At two facilities in Jiaxing, Shandong Province, our investigators recorded dog killings. First, the animals were stunned by successive blows to the head, then their throats slit, all fully awake. These are terrible and unforgettable scenes.

Dog carcasses are sold for meat at the market, while their skins are used to make coats, toys and bags.

RESPECT YOUR FRIENDSHIP

As loyal friends, dogs and cats have been loved by humans for thousands of years. Protect these ancient ties by replacing animal foods with plant-based products.

At a market in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, southern China, Animal Equality investigators discovered that traders were selling carpets made from dog and cat fur, some made from the carcasses of nine animals. objects upwards. The images obtained by our investigators have been seen by people around the world, and thanks to the outcry from our footage, 33 markets and a left dog and cat slaughterhouse. license has been closed by the Chinese government.

Images of the investigation, along with news of market closures and slaughterhouses, were broadcast on Italian state TV channel TG1.

Thanks to our close cooperation with Chinese activists and law enforcement, approximately 600 dogs and cats have been rescued.

Here’s the story of one of those animals, a dog named Vita, that was rescued by our investigators from an illegal slaughterhouse:

Animal Sacrifice at Gadhimai Festival, Nepal, 2014 – 2019

Every five years, Nepal celebrates the Gadhimai festival, a ceremonial celebration that involves the slaughter of thousands of animals.

Considered the largest animal sacrifice in the world, large numbers of buffaloes, goats, sheep and birds are brutally slaughtered by devotees to offer to the Hindu goddess Gadhimai. For more than half a decade, Animal Equality investigators have been at the forefront of efforts to stop this barbaric massacre.

In 2014, we launched a campaign to ban animal sacrifice in Nepal, asking the temple to hold alternative rituals that did not involve killing or mistreating animals.

After the relentless campaign of our activists, the government of neighboring India has decided to impose a new ban to prevent the movement of animals into Nepal during the Gadhimai festival. The decision is crucial in reducing the number of animals being sacrificed, with the 2014 festival seeing 70% fewer animals sacrificed than in 2009.

Unfortunately, despite the worldwide outcry, the festival goes ahead as scheduled in 2019. For this reason, our campaign to end animal sacrifice in Nepal continues and Our investigators were on the scene again to document the massacre.

To divert festivalgoers away from animal sacrifice, we have partnered with the Red Cross in Nepal to organize stations where devotees can donate blood (instead of animal blood) to pay homage to the Hindu goddess.

Chicken Market, India, 2017-2018

In 2017, Animal Equality documented the cruelty of the chicken industry in India. For 6 months, our team investigated chicken farms and markets in Pune, Raigad and Delhi.

We have filmed the horrendous breeding, transportation and slaughtering conditions to which these fragile animals are subjected. At live animal markets in India, chickens are kept in small cages for days without food or water. They are then killed at these unsanitary markets, with their throats cut and the birds left to die in agony.

According to Indian food safety standards, chickens must instead be slaughtered at authorized slaughterhouses and stun before slaughter. However, these standards are systematically violated in most cases.

Although India is a country with a history of vegetarianism, chicken consumption has increased in recent years due to constant political pressure and lobbying by major European corporations to expand their product sales into new territories.

Threats of wet markets, China, India and Vietnam, 2020

In April 2020, in response to the pandemic caused by COVID-19, Animal Equality announced a new investigation with footage collected at wet markets in China, India and Vietnam. Male.

Wet markets are also a threat to global public health. At these markets, wild and domestic animals live together in cramped, unsanitary cages. The stress from their living and transport conditions weakens their immune systems, creating the perfect breeding ground for viruses that pass from animals to humans.

This is the case for SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which was born in a wet market in China, as well as COVID-19, which many scientists believe originated in a wet market. wet in Wuhan, China.

Along with our investigation, we launched a petition asking the United Nations (UN) to ban wet markets worldwide. So far, the petition has gathered more than 500,000 signatures.

In response to the outbreak, China announced a ban on the trade and consumption of wild animals, and ordered the closure of some illegal markets. In May, our investigative team, along with local undercover activists, returned to China to see for themselves whether markets were indeed closed, such as the media and reported by the Chinese government.

Unfortunately, the cruelty to animals and the threat to public health posed by wet markets continues, as our footage reveals.