China dog meat fest opens as S. Korea goes the other way

Thousands of dogs are butchered during the festival in Yulin, a faction of the more than 10 million consumed each year in China. [Pak Yiu, AFP]

As South Korea moves closer to banning dog meat, diners tuck into bowls of stewed canine in southern China, where activists are rethinking their tactics to counter a notorious festival that butchers thousands of dogs.

The annual Yulin dog meat celebration opened without a hitch on Thursday, a day after a South Korean court announced it had ruled that the slaughtering of dogs for meat was illegal.