An animal charity has uncovered a grisly trader in St Bernard puppies which, it says, are being exported from Europe to China as pets and sold to dog breeding centres for use in the meat industry.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) is launching a campaign to warn dog breeders of the dangers.
It’s being backed by Britain’s top breeder of St Bernards, Margaret Ward. She says: “Unless I am 100% certain that my dogs willnot risk ending up in China, I will not export them to any country abroad and I would advise my fellow breeders to do the same.”
The society says the dogs are crossbred with Chinese Mongolian meat dogs to produce meat for human consumption.
The WSPA investigator Trevor Wheeler says: “The breeding of dogs for meat in China is an expanding and profitable business. If China’s dog meat farms continue to grow and export to neighbouring countries, there will be no telling how many dogs will leave Europe to fuel a demand for the dinner table in China.”
The WSPA says typically, dogs are killed for consumption by being beaten over the head with an iron bar or stabbed in the throat with a knife that is then drawn down towards the heart, making them to bleed to death.
It says live dogs are also sold, after being concussed with a blow to the head, trussed up and kept in this fashion for an indefinite period until they are killed by the customer at home.
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