No Dogs Left Behind

Every year around the June summer solstice, the south-west Chinese city of Yulin, located in the Guangxi province, holds the Yulin Lychee and Dog Meat Festival — commonly known as the Yulin Festival. It’s believed the event, which started formally in 2009, was created to draw a revenue-stream of tourists to counter the economic drought of the region. As many as 10,000 dogs havebeen consumed at a single fete, though numbers are said to be dropping down towards the lower thousands, hopefully due to shrinking popularity. For now, right now in fact, the festival rages on. For 10 days, attendees can choose cleaved or skinned, roasted dogs in their entirety—from nose to tail—all in the name of festival fun. The story of what happens to these dogs is the stuff of slasher films, and with every sta...