Hundreds of dogs are beginning new lives after their rescue from slaughter in China, but the work to end what critics call a “festival of cruelty” will continue.

In the autonomous region of Guangxi, the summer solstice on June 21 is marked with a highly controversial event in Yulin. Started in 2010, the event involves the sale, butchering, and consumption of thousands of dogs and cats.

“The ‘festival’ has no traditional or cultural background,” said Kelly O’Meara, director of companion animals and engagement for Humane Society International, in an email exchange with The Blade from her office in Gaithersburg, Md. “It was created by the vendors and traders of the dog-meat market to promote dog-meat consumption.”

Defenders say the factory farming and slaughter of cattle, chickens, and hogs in the Western world is no different. Ms. O’Meara said while there are serious animal welfare issues in the meat industry here, the dog-meat industry is even more brutal.

“In the case of the dog-meat trade, the industry operates without any oversight and [with] many illegal components,” she said. “The industry is riddled with intense cruelty from transport in crowded wire cages, exposed to all of the elements with no food, water, or rest given. Many die in transit, but for those that survive, they endure a horrific slaughter.”

Before and during the event, dogs transported for sale and slaughter are stuffed into rusty cages often so full they cannot move. Many are emaciated, sick, dying, or already dead. The killing of dogs that survive transport routinely involves additional torture as they may be bludgeoned to death, have their throats slit, or be skinned, boiled, or burned alive.

The dogs are taken from the streets, but many of them appear to be stolen pets. Some are found with collars, microchips, painted nails, clothing, or showing behaviors indicative of having been a family companion.

HSI and its Chinese partners were able to intercept a truck carrying hundreds of dogs to Yulin, close a slaughterhouse for a day to rescue the 54 animals there, and helped rescue and transport 120 more dogs out of the city, Ms. O’Meara said.

The California-based Animal Hope and Wellness Foundation, led by activist Marc Ching and which partners with HSI, reported it has rescued more than 1,000 dogs after making deals with the owners of six slaughterhouses and shutting them down.

The Yulin event is declining. HSI estimates 2,000 to 3,000 dogs were killed in 2015, compared to an estimated 15,000 in 2010. The environment in Yulin this year was very tense, Ms. O’Meara said, with “vendors and butchers on edge and more aggressive.”

“Fewer live dogs were seen at the markets, and some of the slaughterhouses our teams saw operating in April during their pre-visit to Yulin were closed the week before Yulin,” she said.

The event is the subject of intense international scorn and condemnation. U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings (D., Fla.) introduced a resolution May 25 to condemn the Yulin event and calling on the Chinese government to enact tougher animal cruelty laws and end the dog-meat trade within its borders. The resolution, which has 54 co-sponsors in both parties, was assigned to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

“It is a spectacle of extreme animal cruelty for commercial purposes,” Mr. Hastings said in his testimony on the House floor. “This practice, in my opinion, is completely unacceptable, and can be stopped by the diligent efforts of members of the Chinese government.”

He also noted the practice is not only cruel to the animals, but poses a significant health risk to people who could be exposed to diseases such as rabies and cholera.

In a more recent statement released June 20, Mr. Hastings called the Yulin event “an abomination,” noting some participants’ “twisted belief that torture makes the meat taste better.”

Earlier this month, HSI and the Humane Society of the United States, working with VShine and Beijing Mothers Against Animal Cruelty, submitted a petition to the Yulin and Chinese governments signed by more than 11 million people worldwide calling for an end to the dog-meat trade in China.

“More than 50 percent of Chinese people would like to see a ban on the dog-meat trade in total, and more than 64 percent would like to see an end to the Yulin festival,” she said, citing a recent opinion poll commissioned by HSI and Avaaz. “More and more Chinese people are disagreeing with eating dog, especially as more are experiencing dogs in their home as companions [and] pets.”

Consuming dog meat is a tradition in some areas, Ms. O’Meara said, but the trade was generally established in many countries during times of famine.

“It does appear to be a dying trade, and the gap in perception between a pet dog and a dog-meat dog is diminishing quickly throughout Asia,” she said.

In China, citizens seem to be increasingly against it as they learn about the cruelty involved in the trade, Ms. O’Meara said.

“It will take a cultural shift in perception and a majority of a culture [or] society to diminish demand and insist upon legislation that will put an end to the trade for good,” she said.

Contact Alexandra Mester: amester@theblade.com, 419-724-6066, or on Twitter @AlexMesterBlade.

First Published June 26, 2016, 4:00 a.m.