China's dog meat festival ripe for the chop: activists

WARNING - Some readers may find the above video disturbing.

China's annual dog meat festival this year in Yulin faces more scrutiny than ever after animal rights groups sent Beijing a petition with 11 million signatures protesting the practice as barbaric and cruel.  Activists like Yang Yuhua went to the festival to save the dogs, buying two from a breeders for about $8 each. "Dogs are man's best, the most loyal friend. How could we eat our friends? You tell me."

The Yulin government has distanced itself from the festival, saying it's staged by private businesses without official backing.

Still, vendors hope for good business this year. 

"They are a lot, a lot of people who like (eating dog meat). It's your habit, it's my habit," one dog meat vendor said,Dog ownership in China used to be considered decadent and bourgeois.

But its growing middle class increasingly sees the consumption of dog meat as barbaric, and is fighting to end the practice.