Animal Welfare Organization NoToDogMeat Chinese activists last week rescued 386 dogs that were in a truck for an acquaintance. Chinese dog meat festival Na sided de yulin.

Activists say many of the dogs that ate at the event were pets stolen from their owners. Some of the animals rescued by the NGO wore identification plates with collars, leashes or registration numbers. The organization’s plan is to find families and return the dogs.

Shortly after the rescue, the number of rescued animals rose to 389 because a dog in a truck gave birth to three puppies when the dog went to the meat festival.

“It simply came to our notice then that the lives of these innocent people had been saved. These puppies would have been born in Yulin, ”said Shao, an activist who runs NoToDogMeat charity shelters in Hebei and Beijing, in an interview with the Daily Mail.

The animals are now in a shelter on the outskirts of Zion, where they receive food, water and emergency veterinary care. Everyone should be immediately relocated to safer places, including NGO shelters in China.

“We will try to identify the owners, but now our priority is to make sure all the dogs are healthy and have a safe place to go,” Shao explains.

The Yulin Festival has been around for over ten years, and was created by dog ​​meat traders in an effort to increase their sales. The program aims to slaughter up to 10,000 dogs and 5,000 cats. In China alone, it is estimated that between 10 million and 15 million dogs are eaten each year.

However, surveys show that the majority of Chinese do not support the dog and cat meat trade. In addition, 72% of Yulin residents say they do not regularly eat dog meat, despite efforts by traders to promote it.

* Intern R7Supervised by Pablo Marquez