10,000 Dogs Tortured as Part of Annual Yulin Dog-Eating Festival

An annual dog meat festival in southern China has gone ahead despite facing the largest-ever campaign to stop it.
An estimated 10,000 dogs are expected to be slaughtered for their meat at the Lychee and Dog Meat Festival in Yulin over just two days.
The dogs, many of which are suspected to be stolen pets or guard dogs, are slaughtered by hundreds of meat vendors in the city.
A social media campaign with the hashtags #StopYuLin2015 and #itsnofestival has attracted international attention, with celebrities including Ricky Gervais calling for the festival to be stopped.
An online petition, initiated in the UK, has received more than three million signatures.
Within China, there is also an increasingly powerful dog welfare movement which is beginning to change attitudes.
According to local media reports, one woman named Yang Xiaoyun paid nearly 7,000 yuan (£700) to "buy back" and save 100 dogs at the beginning of the festival.
Eating dog meat is an ancient tradition in some parts of China.Dog meat is said to be particularly warming to the body as it contains many nutrients.
Dog meat is by no means widely available in China, and festivals like Yulin are exceptions.But in some provinces and among some people, dog meat remains a delicacy.
Organisers and vendors at the festival have dismissed calls for them to stop the slaughter, claiming the animals are killed humanely, and that eating dog is no different from eating pork or beef.
But there is evidence that many of the dogs are stolen rather than farmed, and are killed with clubs in particularly unpleasant slaughterhouses.