A woman who saves dogs from the meat trade in China has spoken of her heartbreak at seeing the "trust" in the eyes of the animals moments before they're butchered or burned alive.
Julia de Cadenet is the founder of No To Dog Meat, which works with locals in countries like China, Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia, all of which have traditions of butchering, cooking, and eating our four-legged friends.
She set up the non-profit, which also has UN status, in 2009 after witnessing the horrors of live meat markets first-hand.
Julia spoke exclusively with The Mirror ahead of the Yulin Lychee and Dog Meat Festival in Guangxi, China, which is expected to have one of the biggest turnouts in years in June after the lifting of Covid restrictions.
Julia, who has rescued a number of the pooches herself, recalled the disgusting sights and smells of the market.
"You can see where they killed them in those markets, blood, urine, everything. It's all happening together," she explained.
At the live meat markets, dogs and cats are slaughtered in front of paying customers before being put straight on the barbecue and roasted.
But before they meet their grisly end, they're cramped up in tiny cages without food or water.
It's been previously reported that the butchers will often beat the dogs before they're slaughtered due to a belief that adrenaline improves the taste of the meat.
Julia said she can't describe how it feels to look into their eyes in their final moments.
She said: "So I've taken home some of the actual rescued animals, and I've seen it myself. I've rescued them from those places.
"It's just the trust in the eyes of those animals. I can't even begin to tell you how it feels. But, you go to places and you can't save everyone."
No To Dog Meat is currently raising funds and awareness for their rescue drive with plans to build additional shelters to house the pups they save. They already have 700 animals currently housed at locations across Asia.
This comes ahead of a dog meat fare which is expecting a record turnout this year.
China, which had some of the strictest lockdown measures in the world, is finally reopening its doors and permitting international and national visitors, with huge amounts of inter-city travel expected.
To attract tourists do the barbaric pooch prison, it's expected that the organisers of the Yulin Lychee and Dog Meat Festival will put on a massive show for guests.
Dog meat is considered a delicacy in some parts of the world, mainly in Asia, and an estimated 10 million canines are killed and eaten every year in China alone.
The trade is completely unregulated and it's not uncommon for household pets to be stolen from their owner's homes.
Each year, desperate scenes are shared across the world showing dogs still wearing their owner's collar around their necks while crammed into overpacked cages.
On many occasions, they are transported for hundreds of miles without food or water.
What makes Yulin particularly gruesome is the fact that the dogs are bludgeoned or left to bleed out after having their throats slit, in full view of the other animals awaiting slaughter
