End twinning with Chinese dog eaters, council told

A BRITISH city is under pressure to sever its twinning ties with a Chinese province where a “Dog Meat Festival” is held every summer.

About 18,000 people have signed a petition calling for Newport, Wales, to cut the links it established in 1996 with Guangxi, about 200 miles west of Hong Kong, originally set up to promote international friendship and cooperation.

Animal lovers want the deal rescinded after they discovered the city of Yulin in Guangxi holds a 10-day annual Dog Meat Festival, during which about 10,000 dogs are killed and eaten.

Activists claim dogs, including family pets, are slain and skinned inhumanely in public places during the festival. Leah Austin, a campaigner, said: “It is really sad that Newport is aligned with such sickening animal cruelty. It only started in 2009, so it is not an ingrained tradition and many Chinese people themselves are totally repulsed by it. Newport needs to stand up and let the world know this should not and will not be tolerated.”

The custom of dog eating in China is legal – as it is in the UK – and dates back at least 400 years.

A Newport delegation last visited China in 1999 and Chinese officials visited Newport in 2004 for the National Eisteddfod cultural event.

A Newport council spokesman said: “We will consider the petition in line with council policy if and when it receives it.”