Durban - Animal activists and rescue organisations demonstrated outside the Chinese consulate in Durban North on Sunday ahead of the annual Lychee and Dog Meat festival in Yulin, China.
During the course of the festival - scheduled to take place over 10 days next month in the south of China - thousands of dogs and cats will be eaten.
Judy van der Westhuizen, an animal rights activist and founder of Khetani Animal Rescue, said a handful of people held a peaceful demonstration to show their unhappiness with the festival.
“I feel we did carry our message across. They skin and boil dogs alive because the Chinese believe that if the dogs suffers, they taste better. They also set cats alight while they are alive,” said Van der Westhuizen.
She said the protesters usually prepared a letter of grievances which they handed to security officers at the consulate, because their officials did not accept it.
On Sunday they opted to email the letter instead.
Van der Westhuizen said that in the letter they expressed their unhappiness with the festival.
They described the eating of dogs and cats as an embarrassment and called for an end to it.
The demonstration against the Lychee and Dog Meat festival took place every year and she said they were the only activists in Africa who participated in it.
Attempts to reach the Chinese consulate and Chinese embassy in South Africa were unsuccessful.
Organisations from foreign countries were also involved in the fight against the festival.
Internationally the Duo Duo Project started a petition “Shut Down the Yulin Dog Meat Festival” on change.org, and so far it has garnered more than 3.5 million signatures.
Along with the petition, Duo Duo Project director of international policies Paul Fong said many of the dogs were stolen pets or watchdogs of rural families and allowing the festival to go ahead was like endorsing theft.
Meanwhile, a boerboel was shot and killed during a tuckshop robbery in oThongathi (Tongaat), north of Durban, on Saturday.
The dog was shot when it started barking at four armed men as they fled the scene, said Reaction Unit SA spokesperson Prem Balram.
Earlier this month Mthonjaneni deputy mayor Phumlani Ntombela was found guilty of animal cruelty after a dog was shot in Melmoth last year. Ntombela was sentenced to a R4000 fine or six months’ imprisonment, half of it suspended for five years. His co-accused and bodyguard, Bongani Shabalala, was found guilty and sentenced to a R2000 fine or six months’ imprisonment, which was suspended for five years.