Earlier this week, a short footage went viral on several social media platforms, the short clip showed a dog that was being tortured and was torched alive before the dog meat festival started in China.

At least 15,000 dogs are tortured, killed, and cooked during the Yulin Lychee and Dog Meat Festival in China annually.

The meat of the dog is considered as a delicacy in the country.

The Director of the Human Society International, Claire Bass, said, “Yulin is one relatively small example of a much larger, uglier issue that thousands of dedicated Chinese activists are working to stop.”

She added, “Contrary to the assumptions by many in the West, most people in China don’t eat dogs and in fact they are horrified at the thought of a trade that takes their canine companions away from them.”

Most of the dogs and cats that are slaughtered in the annual festival are stray animals that are stolen from the streets, and sometimes the animals used in the festival are stolen.

In order to stop this annual tradition, more than 1.5 million people from all around the world have signed a petition that is set to place a stop on the annual festival.

Usually, cats and dogs are blow-torched while they are alive.

The animals are then sold at local countries.

In several occasions, animals were seen being slaughtered in public places.

Dame Judi Dench, an Actress, also sent her support for the petition that will put an end to the cruel annual festival, the actress said, “It fills me with sadness to think that the Yulin dog meat festival is just around the corner again.”

Dame added, “So I wanted to send this message as a symbol of my solidarity with all the thousands of people in China against the dog meat trade, who love their dogs and cats just as much as we do, but who go through the awful heart ache of having them stolen by dog thieves.”

Thousands of people take place in the cruel festival each summer on June 21, 2019, they do this so they could celebrate the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year.

It is believed that dog meat can ward off diseases and allows men to enhance their sexual performance. A lot of people believe that eating dog meat in the summer can bring in luck for their family and allows them to have better health.

Cat Meat, Fresh Lychees, Liquor, and other meat are served during the festival, which lasts for 10 days.

The meat of the dog is worth around $12-15 dollars and $5-7 dollars of cat meat.