Burmese Dogs For Dog-meat Restaurants In China

(Translation of news article direct from the EMG on 26 July 2013.)

A Dog-meat shop in Yunan, China.

In recent years thousands and thousands of stray dogs in Burma are captured, warehoused, and exported to neighbouring Yunan in China as pet dogs. Exporting live-dogs to China is highly-profitable business in Burma nowadays as there are probably millions of stray dogs in Burma.

But there is a sinister story behind the feel-good headline. All of the exported Burmese dogs end up in the brutal kitchens of notorious dog-meat restaurants in China as expensive dog meats.

The captured stray dogs from all over Burma are kept in horrible warehouses (Dog Go-downs) mostly located in the town of Pa-late in Sink-gai township near Mandalay and then trucked to the border trading gate at Muse by busy Mandalay-Muse trade route.

For many years truck-loads of captured stray-dogs are permitted by the Burmese government as pet dogs being exported to China even though everyone in Burma now know that the live-dogs are heading to the Chinese slaughter-houses to be butchered for dog-meat widely popular in China.

A Burmese dog-truck heading for China?

At present markets an average-sized dog fetches from 15,000 to 20,000 Kyats (nearly US$ 15 to 20) in Yunan just across the border from Muse. The demand is so high the Chinese traders in Burma are even dog-napping pet dogs in Mandalay. This was what Saw Yu Aye a dog owner, whose dog was released only after she paid a hefty ransom after it was nabbed from her house in Mandalay, had to say about her ordeal.

A large dog-warehouse with hundreds of captured stray-dogs for export to China.

“My little dog disappeared one day and people from our neighbourhood told us to go look for him in the dog-warehouse nearby. So we went and we got back him only after the exhausting search among hundreds of poor dogs being kept for export in the dark warehouse.

Every dog there had bash-wounds on its head as that was how they were caught. We had to pay 10,000 kyats ransom for our little dog. We felt so bad for other dogs as we knew they were all going to end up as dog-meat in China. So we bargained with the keepers and finally they agreed to a price of 7,000 kyats for each dog to be rescued.

So far we have rescued sixty dogs and released them at Myit-tar-seint-san animal asylum in Pa-khoke-ku. That dog-warehouse alone still has more than 100 dogs and we’re now collecting more money from donors to rescue them all.”

Mandalay-Muse trade route to the Yunan State of China.

A grilled-dog shop in Yunan, China.

Some veterinary surgeons from Mandalay and many dog-lovers from Rangoon are also running online-campaigns to collect donations to rescue dogs facing similar fate in other dog-warehouses in the town of Pa-late.

The animal-campaigners are also informing the relevant government authorities of the brutal dog-trades going on unchecked in Burma and also reminding the ruthless Chinese dog-traders that bashing dogs and keeping them in torturous situations and transporting them long distance in horribly-cramped dog-trucks are against the Burmese law and they could be prosecuted for cruelty against animals.