Stall holders had told the BBC they had heard nothing about the ban from any Yulin Official.

Compared to 2016 i would say the restaurants were 50% empty, maybe this had a lot to do with the weather as thunderstorms and torrential rain hit Yulin.

The main dog meat restaurant in Yulin was closed for the duration of the festival at the order of the mayor of Yulin. Ironically, the mayor’s favorite eating place.

I believe the mayor and local government believed there would be a surge of westerners present again this year and wanted to minimize the extent of the festival, thing was, the only other westerner i saw was my colleague and friend, Nikki who was with me working for a dutch organization.

We had a young Chinese translator with us at all times, he was able to translate everything he heard, even the mud slinging from various angry traders towards us.

We went to the markets early on the 21st, (summer solstice) and was confronted by angry market traders and landlords protecting their interests.

One Chinese market trader called our translator a traitor for being with us and called him a banana. (Yellow on the outside and white inside)

The traders and landlords feared for their livelihood.

There was a heavy police presence.

We were not allowed in or welcomed at any of the two main markets. traders vigorously defended their stalls and blocked any visuals of dog meat or caracas’s.

Extra helpers held umbrellas in the line of camera lenses and others stood in front of our cameras.

Huge woks of stewing dog meat were picked up while simmering and taken out of sight

You knew what was dog meat compared to goat or beef because the people ushering us away acted differently when there was dog.

The stench was putrid and unbearable at times.

It was believed that only two dog caracas’s were allowed to hang from hooks on the many portable stalls around Yulin, we did see stalls with many more than that but there were no law enforcement officers telling traders to take them down.

Around the market areas there was hostility towards us but away from there, butchers were happy to let us film and take pictures.

Those people that were not selling dog were extremely friendly and courteous towards us, many wanting to have their photos taken by our sides. one trader selling clothing, called me over and gave me a bottle of beer to share with him.

One group of women took us into a restaurant and offered us a plate of dog stew and beer.

These people were hard, honest folk that couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about eating dog when we in the west ate everything else!

These people can’t read Facebook in china as the media and social media are heavily censored but they do use WeChat and their own version of Facebook, they do know of all the name calling and abhorrent rhetoric from many in the west, I even showed many of these comments to our translator.

They agreed that it doesn’t help, the popularity of Yulin in the west raised interest from within China and many people came to Yulin with the intension of trying dog meat.

Dog meat is the most expensive meat at the festival apart from Cat (for which i’m told is rare and less desirable)

Beef and pork are a lot cheaper, Lamb being more expensive, one Chinese lady told me in India they worship cows but i don’t see indians protesting in the USA or Europe, is it because the west likes to bully us and wish to drop atomic bombs on our heads!

Last year millions of Chinese people protested the festival, millions of signatures were gathered and handed into the government.

Many Chinese activists with very little funding, wait in the early hours of each day to head off trucks full of dogs and sometimes cats.

They take the dogs to known rescue areas and save those that are strong enough.

Yulin is working and so is China.

30 million dogs are killed annually not just the 10 thousand estimate in Yulin each year and this is the key to stopping this festival and the many not so famous ones.

The city of Yulin is not the biggest dog meat consumer in Guangxi province. It is only since the festival started around 10 years ago that the city received national and international attention.

get people to stop eating dog meat and the festivals will end.

This is something Animals Asia promotes and works on 365 days a year.

The key is education not hate.

The number of pet dogs in the country has skyrocketed in recent years with 62 million registered canine companions. This has gradually changed many people’s opinion on eating dog meat.

Start writing to the Chinese in a constructive manner, tell the positive angle of the story.

Cultures come together when they are being attacked from all sides.

Look at Taiji with the Japanese, look at the Faroe islands, calling everybody inbreds and scumbags unites people against our cause,

I connected with the Chinese people and saw another side to Yulin.

I saw poverty on the streets and I saw wealth. I saw love and i saw hate.

I see the very same as I see in my own country to be honest,

I saw dog, cat and waterfowl in horrible conditions.

In my own country I see the same, I have seen the very same torture (I have been inside western slaughterhouses) Paul McCartney once famously said “If slaughterhouses had glass walls we would all be vegetarian.

Yulin, Taiji, The Faroe islands will go on and so will our own destruction of this beautiful planet until one day there will be nothing to abuse.

Yulin is a place for Westerners to make money and make stories that they dream up dramatically.

These stories are melodramatic with the intent of driving your emotions high to elicit money from your pockets.

All these stories have a donate link at the side.

“My heart felt the jolt of this act of cruelty like the moon’s tears washed over the blood the earth where God never walked”

The real heroes are still there and will be there until they are sapped of energy.

They ask for nothing and all i’m asking is for their support from you…

Praise goes a long way, how do you feel when someone gives you a hug for what you are doing or a pat on the back.

I hate Yulin, I hate seeing the dogs, cats and other animals this way.

I despise my own culture, the cruel hunting of animals, the cruelty that i see day to day of sentient beings.

Nobody stands up against what we do in the West, we always seem to pick on others first, it is a form of bullying.

I understand frustration, we all want this to go away, I get it!

The honest answer is to stop eating animals.

Dog, cow, pig, horse, chicken, fish, turkey, veal, venison, lamb, goat, bear……………

Is placing dog as man’s best friend a mantle so that you can eat farm animals?

Is a dog more intelligent than a goat?

Is this really just an excuse so you can tuck into your steak?

Why were you disgusted when you found that there was horse in your burger at McDonalds recently, did you not realize that there was a cow there too?

Many of you that will have read this will be disappointed that it doesn’t cut the jugular of those that kill and abuse the dogs and cats of Yulin.

Will I go back to Yulin next year, I’m fairly sure I will, animals have no borders to me and it is unfortunate some are born under the wrong sky.

I feel it is always my duty to create awareness wherever animals suffer on this planet.

I want Yulin to also expose our own cruelty.

I want everyone who reads this to look in the mirror before criticizing others.

There is no humane way to take a life, the word humane doesn’t belong in the same sentence as killing.

I never went to Yulin to get the most dramatic shot to put in National Geographic, i went to see the impact.

I can report that many dogs were killed, probably in the most barbaric way.

There will be others that go back because Yulin is about them and NOT the dogs.

Those people know who they are.

To the ducks, geese, turtles, dogs and cats that lost their lives this year, you lost your lives meaninglessly until every black, pink, white, green, yellow person stops using animals for food.

Martyn Stewart

The oropendola uses its Syrinx to the full with this vocalization.

Enjoy……….

I believe social media has turned many animal activists into a fragment of what they once were. They have found a niche from which to catapult themselves to stardom, and it’s ugly. Almost gone are those who truly fight for the rights of animals. They have been replaced with people, aka “rescuers,” who seek to elevate themselves to hero status. Social media has become a place where you can tell a sad story, post a picture of an animal in distress, and start a funding campaign in the blink of an eye.

Many thousands of hard-earned dollars are pulled from the pockets of people who hope that the champion they elect will save the world. The problem is that good people who can ill afford to make donations often give whatever they can spare in the hope that their money will translate to productive action. They want to believe that their money will go a long way in stopping the atrocities they see and hear about. But when their savior gets found out as someone whose motives are questionable at best, it becomes incredibly painful and disillusioning for them – they feel absolutely cheated, and for good reason.

I have no t-shirts to sell or customized coffee cups to offer, just a voice for the countless dogs and cats that suffer every year at the Yulin festival, and throughout Asia. So here it is, my account of what I experienced at this year’s Yulin dog meat festival.

The little calves that were laying beaten on the ground amongst their families in their own feces broke my heart.

I dedicate this to all the animals that were brutally killed for a fictitious God by the name of Gadhimai.

This festival happens every 5 years, the next one is due in 2019. This cannot happen and I will do everything in my power to stop it.

Its no good calling all the people of Nepal names, wishing harm on them.

These people who attend this festival are mostly impoverished, Their heads are filled with superstitions, they believe that their Goddess with grant them wishes in return for blood…

The powers that be control their behaviors and manipulate them… Collectively, we can stop this and we have to stop it.

Please support the Humane Society of India, The AWNN of Nepal.

Please SHARE this video far and wide.

Without awareness this will not stop.

You HAVE to be affected to act, please let this video empower you to do something.

We have to be a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves….

A nation is judged by the way it treats its animals.

Mass slaughter happens every day behind closed doors in the very country we live in…..

You can help by becoming Vegan….
R.I.P beautiful animals, One day you will live without the fear of man…..
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I was in the Museum with my stepdad and brother looking at a picture of the Irish Elk and the Dodo, both these animals had the word “Extinct” under them… At that age, i had to try to understand what that word meant.

When i tried to, I likened it to not being able to have sweets on the way to school Trouble was, sweeties are always there even though i couldn’t have any for the time.

When I understood that Extinction was forever and there were no shops to buy back what had gone, it kinda hit me hard! The Dodo and the Irish Elk were two animals I could think of besides the dinosaurs.

Up to today, i have witnessed many animals and fauna become extinct. I have recorded and filmed the black rhino, the Hawaiian crow and the critically endangered Wyoming toad amongst others. Two thirds of my sound library have become extinct.

I have been to Africa on many occasions, each time I go there I see the change dramatically.

While looking for a song to accompany a film I’m making I came across “Mr Parr” and his Conservation song. I thought I would use it for this video

Many people will not watch this video because they will turn away but if you are a little squeamish, look away but listen to the song..

We need to be affected to act, we need to create awareness and without your emotional strings being pulled, you won’t do anything..

Please share this, the animals need us more than anything right now, this song and its catchy tune will go a long way into those who’s hearts care about our planet…

Look at this picture also, when you have done, tell me what’s the difference? In Las Vegas on the strip is a hotel that houses dolphins. The conditions i believe are far worse than Taiji. Both are extremely cruel but this hotel is in the Mojave Desert!

Dolphin feeding at the Mirage Hotel, Vegas

Temperatures in the 100’s with no shade, pound down on these animals. 10 of these dolphins are subject to these conditions.

People watch as dolphins suffer in intense heat

The difference between Taiji and the Mirage hotel is nothing when it comes to animal abuse…….
A very passionate group formed by 2 young women have dedicated their time to bringing awareness to this situation in Las Vegas…

Free the Mojave Dolphins is a group that was founded by Shelly Rae. In fact she moved her home from California to be in Las Vegas so she could concentrate on getting some relief for these dolphins.

This Friday outside the Mirage hotel between 5 and 7pm will be a peaceful demonstration to bring awareness. On the Thursday night the will have a screening of the Cove with Ric O’barry present.

Please support the Free the Mojave Dolphin group as much as you possibly can. Please do not support the Mirage Hotel or any facility that uses animals for entertainment….

Please be a voice for the voiceless. They need you more than ever now.