Millions of dogs face ongoing horrors beyond Yulin

We welcome the news that China officials will ban the sale of dog meat at the Yulin festival, but warn that millions of dogs still face ongoing mistreatment every year.   

 Looking beyond a ‘quick fix’

There are an estimated 700 million dogs worldwide. Many are stray, suffer poor welfare, and experience cruel methods of population control. 

Uncontrolled breeding can lead to aggressive dog behaviour, injury from bites, human death, and other veterinary and public health challenges including rabies.

When a country experiences one or more of these concerns, authorities often resort to ineffective measures such as the inhumane culling of dogs as a perceived ‘quick-fix’ solution, without addressing root causes.

 Better lives for dogs

Our proposed solution to these issues is to support countries in implementing humane dog population management practices. This helps address the root causes of uncontrolled breeding in a more sustainable and humane way

Pankaj KC, our director of animals in communities, said:

“Although the cruelty of Yulin is ending, this should not take our eyes off the suffering of dogs. Every day, thousands of dogs are violently killed. Dragged through streets, electrocuted, poisoned or even gassed – culling is nearly always a horrendous and painful death. 

Culling dogs is both inhumane and ineffective in managing populations and eliminating rabies – the only way to eliminate the virus is through vaccination. We want governments worldwide to end the inhumane culling of dogs.”

One million vaccinations

Vaccinating at least 70% of the dogs in an area creates ‘herd immunity’, slowing the spread of rabies until it dies out. 

We’re calling on governments to develop humane dog population management policies that involve local communities. From Sierra Leone to Bangladesh, we’ve worked with authorities to administer over one million vaccinations to dogs.