Animal rights groups claim notorious Chinese dog-eating festival ‘has been closed down’

Animal rights activists claim that a dog meat festival notorious for caged animals – some of them stolen pets – being clubbed to death has been banned from selling meat.

An estimated 10 to 20 million dogs are killed for meat each year in China – but the Yulin festival has come to symbolise the cruelty of China’s dog meat habit.

But while American animal rights groups claim that the 10-day Lychee and Dog Meat Festival has been banned from selling dog meat, local vendors claim not to have heard of the ban, the BBC reports.

MORE: Tory manifesto: Seven ways Theresa May wants to change Britain

MORE: This is what the British public think of the main party leaders

Humane Society International said that, ‘If this news is true as we hope, it is a really big nail in the coffin for a gruesome event that has come to symbolise China’s crime-fuelled dog meat trade.’

As many as 10,000 dogs, many of them stolen pets still wearing their collars, are slaughtered for the festival held deep inside the poor, largely rural Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Peter Li, China policy specialist at Humane Society international said that restaurants found to be violating the ba would be find.

Activist claim that the new Communist Party secretary of Yulin, Mo Gong Ming wants to boost Yulin’s international reputation.

But one owner of a dog meat restaurant was sceptical, telling the BBC, ‘Banning the sales of dog meat? I’ve not heard of it. Why is dog meat any different from other meat anyway?’