The annual dog-meat festival in the southern Chinese city of Yulin was scheduled to start on Tuesday, the day of the summer solstice, but Chinese police stopped a truck carrying 386 dogs on its way to the slaughterhouse.

The canines were captured on video being crammed into filthy wire cages at the scene. Animal rights groups were concerned that some of the people inside the car may have been sick with contagious diseases when they discovered it last weekend. Thus, invoking the country’s laws regarding the prevention of epidemics, they denounced the vehicle to the police.

Lin Xiong, one of the campaigners who witnessed the automobile being stopped by the police, said: “It was frightening to see so many dogs in such a terrible condition; it was like a truck from hell for these poor animals. Our nation is ashamed of the dog meat trade, so we will fight until there is an end to this suffering.

Chinese animal rights activists searched for novel ways to prevent the slaughter of dogs in advance of this year’s Yulin dog meat festival, which typically draws only a modest number of people from the city.

Xiao He, an animal legal rights activist located in Shaanxi, stated that he and his fellow activists had spent several weeks going over China’s preexisting laws and regulations in an effort to convince the authorities to prevent the event from taking place.

“There are policies that explain exactly how to handle animals, such as legally needed certificates of quarantine evaluation. Nonetheless, it is very evident that the individuals who brought the dogs did not adhere to the policies. “In addition to the authorities, we need to remind them [of those policies],” he stated.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in China stated in the year 2020 that dogs are not “livestock” that should be consumed but rather are companion animals.

Activists who were genuinely involved in the effort to save the dogs on board the ship reported that the dogs were of varying breeds, sizes, and had varying degrees of health concerns. They stated that it was likely that they were stolen family guard dogs or pets, strays that were snatched from the streets, or that they originated from other unknown sources that cannot be traced.

After receiving treatment from the authorities over the course of the weekend, the canines were released to be confined. According to Chinese activists who spoke with the Guardian, the canines have been delivered to Beijing’s Capital Animal Welfare Organization after the investors signed an agreement to give up ownership of the animals. The agreement required the investors to give up ownership of the dogs.

According to Peter Li, a China plan expert at Humane Society International, a project group, the Yulin authorities were “duped” by the traders who falsely argued that the consumption of dog meat is “traditional” and an integral part of the local dietary culture. Li claimed that the traders convinced the Yulin authorities of this falsehood. “Consumption of dog meat is driven by supply, which is driven by the traders, and not by the consumers themselves. He stated that the slaughtering of dogs in Yulin was conducted for business purposes and not for cultural reasons.

According to Li, his crew that was on the ground in Yulin witnessed the police trying to prevent business owners from making a display of the so-called “festival.”

Prior to 2014, a significant number of eaters came from regions other than Guangxi. This group has shrunk by a significant margin, notably since the year 2020. The number of local customers, of which there are many, has been gradually decreasing.