The moment police and animal rights activists stopped a vehicle containing 53 terrified dogs as it reached an unauthorized dog meat slaughterhouse in Indonesia was caught on camera.
How the Dogs Were Rescued
According to a statement from animal rights group Humane Society International, the dogs were tied in bags and others had their mouths closed together. Many of them were very malnourished.
According to Humane Society International, the animals arrived at the butcher after a 10-hour trip, where 30 dogs are bludgeoned to death every day.
On the Indonesian island of Java, police stopped a car and apprehended a man accused of selling dog meat as part of the country's first large-scale dog meat factory raid, according to Newsweek.
Officials infiltrated a dog-trafficking group on the island before arresting the merchant, who has reportedly been at the heart of Java's dog meat trade for more than two decades.
The Dog Meat Free Indonesia (DMFI) organization, which advocates for a national ban on the dog and cat meat industries, was on the scene to save dogs that were still alive. One of the dogs had unfortunately perished during the trip.
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State of the Dogs Before Rescue
One of the first individuals on the scene was Lola Webber of Humane Society International (HSI), a member of the DMFI alliance.
She said in a statement: "My heart was pounding in my chest as we approached the truck, because I could hear the dogs' pitiful whimpering and then saw them all tied up in sacks, their soft muzzles squeezed shut with wire.
They were extremely traumatized and frightened. Many of them were still wearing collars, and were no doubt many miles from home, likely stolen pets grabbed from the streets."
She also said they will have been forced into the back of a truck and driven to this terrible and filthy slaughterhouse, where they'll be brutalized over the head and have their throats cut. It's heartbreaking to imagine the terror they must have felt. She said they arrived just in time since the killings normally take place in the early hours of the morning.
DMFI is hoping the incident will send a strong message to other traffickers that they will not go unpunished, and that it will signal a turning point in their effort to get the trade outlawed throughout the country.
Legislative Actions Against the Unlawful act
Only a few regional authorities, like Sukoharjo, have approved specific restrictions in their territories, despite the Indonesian government's promise to crack down on the dog meat trade. According to surveys, 93 percent of Indonesians favor a statewide ban on dog meat, with just around 5% believing they consume it.
In a statement, Tarjono Sapto Nugroho, the chief of criminal investigation for the Sukoharjo police, said: "We receive many complaints about illegal dog meat traders' operations. People do not want this trade or slaughter in their communities. Dogs are friends, not food, and the trade is already illegal and is strictly prohibited by Islamic law."
Tarjono said that some people consider eating dog meat to be a kind of culture, but cultures change, and humans must change with them.
As a result, they began intercepting and seizing dog meat in order to safeguard communities and to aid the Central Javan government in its attempts to abolish the dog meat eating culture and trade.
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