Advocacy group Animals Asia is launching a new advertising campaign to get people in China to stop eating cats and dogs — which apparently is an actual problem — by using 279 “provocative” ads that depict stray dogs and cats between chopsticks.
“What you just put in your mouth could have been a child’s partner in growth,” one poster reads.
“Do you know what you’re eating when you visit a restaurant? A stray from the street?” reads another. Each ad ends with a plea: “Cat and dog meat sold in restaurants is often sourced from stolen domestic animals and strays snatched from the street. Don’t pay for this cruel and dirty industry with your own health. Be healthy, say no to dog and cat meat.”
The posters are meant not only to get people to stop eating dogs and cats in general, but if they want to eat pets, to know where the pet is coming from. ,
“The truth is, if you eat dog or cat then you have no idea where that meat is coming from or how safe it is,” director Irene Feng said in a statement. “We are still seeing many cats and dogs in China being abandoned and left to subsist on the streets, with many dying due to illness. Stray dogs and cats, many of them far from healthy, are snatched from the streets and pets are still being stolen and taken to horrific meat markets. We believe that, faced with this knowledge, most people would find such a meal entirely unappetising.”
Founder Jill Robinson said the campaign seems to be working.
“The good news is that awareness is spreading,” she said. “The reaction we have had from the public to the posters has been incredible as has been the willingness to further share the message. Make no mistake, animal welfare is now an increasingly high profile issue in China and the dog and cat meat industry is being held to account.”
So don’t eat Fluffy, unless you know where he came from. Or better yet, just refrain from eating any household pets. It’s in everyone’s best interest.
