British city drops its twin affiliation with Chinese province because it hosts an annual dog meat festival
- Newport in South Wales has dropped twin affiliation with Guangxi, China
- The province contained city of Yulin which hold annual dog meat festival
- Animal rights activists claim even family pets are slain and skinned inhumanely in public places
A British city has dropped its twin affiliation with a Chinese province because the region hosts an annual dog meat festival.
Animal lovers demanded that council chiefs in Newport, South Wales, cut links with Guangxi in China because thousands of dogs are killed and eaten for fun at the ten-day event held in the city of Yulin.
A petition calling for the twinning to end after 23 years gained nearly 40,000 signatures.
A British city has dropped its twin affiliation with a Chinese province because the region hosts an annual dog meat festival (pictured)
Pet-lovers are enraged over the annual 10 day festival which sees more than 10,000 dogs killed and eaten.
Animal rights activists say dogs – including many family pets – are slain and skinned inhumanely in public places during the barbaric festival at the city of seven million people.
The council initially wrote a strongly worded letter to their Chinese counterparts – but received no reply.
Animal lovers demanded that council chiefs in Newport, South Wales, cut links with Guangxi in China. A petition calling for the twinning to end after 23 years gained nearly 40,000 signatures
The city of Yulin in Guangxi province is home to an annual dog meant festival where animals are cruelly killed and skinned before being eaten for fun
Now, council leader Debbie Wilcox has said the association will end and Guangxi will be removed from all signs and literature in the area. She also pledged to ask Whitehall to call for the practice to come to an end.
She said: ‘Nothing that I suggest would strengthen the upholding of international standards, and the rule of law than by ending the abhorrent practices of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival.
‘We will ensure that signage is removed. I said previously that the arrangement was defunct. We are not twinned with Guangxi.’
The Yulin dog meat festival, which began in 2010 lasts for 10 days during June – but has attracted protests from around the world.
Claire Bass, of Humane Society International UK, said the Yulin festival was ‘one small but distressing example’ of China’s dog meat trade, which is ‘first and foremost about crime and cruelty’.