The Chinese are eating Swiss St. Bernard dogs!

BERN - Swiss dog breeders are raising the alarm! St. Bernard dogs - the Swiss national mascot in the animal kingdom - are to end up on Chinese plates. 'Barry', the courageous avalanche dog of the Great St. Bernard - for the Chinese, this dog is only good for a meal. They derisively call these dogs the "Great Trash Dog". St. Bernard dogs are liked very much because they are sweet-tempered family dogs. The Asians want to butcher them. Chinese experts found the St. Bernard dog to be the perfect dog for meat production. But it gets worse: A Chinese delegation is currently travelling through Europe in order to buy young dogs with the import documents already in their pockets. The Chinese central TV station in Beijing recently showed a long report on St. Bernard dogs, the animal rights organisation «Friends of Animals» warns us. In this report, the TV station even praised the dogs' advantages as a dog for meat production as follows: St. Bernard dogs are resistant to disease. They eat less than other types of dogs. Since they rest a lot, they grow more quickly, which would make them ready for butchering in a mere three to four months. St. Bernard dogs reproduce quickly. On average, a St. Bernard has nine to twelve puppies once or twice a year, which is almost twice as many as with other races. The Chinese TV station also did not forget to mention that St. Bernard dogs are very friendly and easygoing. «They don't bite people, so the The Chinese are eating Swiss St. Bernard dogs breeders don't need to be afraid of them.» St. Bernard dogs on Chinese plates? Roland Hans, the president of the Swiss St. Bernard club, is appalled. He was also among those who received a dubious call from Chinese entrepreneurs: «After I had been warned by breeders and animal rights organisations, I called on our approximately 400 members not to export any animals to China. And I also raised the alarm with foreign St. Bernard clubs.» Hans: «There are pictures of the slaughter of a St. Bernard dog that are so cruel that they cannot be published.» Dog breeder Roland Hans calls upon all friends of the St. Bernard dogs world-wide to bombard the Chinese embassy with letters of protest. Write to: Botschaft der Volksrepublik China (Embassy of the People's Republic of China) Kalcheggweg 1a 3006 Bern Switzerland (By Martin Meier, 'Blick') © European Vegetarian Union - http://www.ivu.org/evu