Originally published 2020-04-11.
In April 2020, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs published a draft list of the animals that could legally be farmed as livestock, and dogs were not on it. The ministry explained that dogs had become companion animals and are not treated as livestock internationally. When the final list came out on 29 May 2020, dogs were still left off. Animal welfare groups called it a turning point, though the change did not by itself make eating dog meat illegal across China.
Here is what the decision covered, why it came when it did, and what it meant for the dog meat trade.
What the ministry announced
The document was a catalogue of livestock and poultry "genetic resources", in practice a positive list of species that may be bred, raised, transported and sold commercially. Livestock in this sense means animals kept to produce food, milk, wool or fibre, fur, or ingredients for medicine.
The draft released on Wednesday 8 April 2020 listed 18 traditional species and 13 "special" ones, and was opened for public comment. Explaining why dogs were excluded, the ministry said that as civilisation progressed and public concern for animal welfare grew, dogs had become "specialised" into companion animals. Reuters and the campaign group Humane Society International (HSI) both reported the statement.
The final version published at the end of May contained 33 species: 17 traditional ones, such as pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits and camels, and 16 special ones, including sika deer, reindeer, alpacas, ostriches, pheasants, minks and foxes. Some of the fur animals, such as foxes and raccoon dogs, were allowed only for non-food uses. The ministry said that listing dogs as livestock had found little public support. It also noted that dogs are not wild animals, so the separate wildlife rules did not apply to them, and said rules on managing dogs would be studied further.
Why it happened in 2020
The list was part of China's response to COVID-19. Many early cases in Wuhan were linked to the Huanan seafood market, where live wild animals were also sold. Scientists think the virus most likely originated in bats and may have passed to people through another animal, although the exact origin of SARS-CoV-2 has not been established.
In January 2020 the authorities suspended the wildlife trade, and on 24 February 2020 the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted a decision banning the eating of terrestrial wild animals, with a promise to revise the wildlife protection law. That raised an obvious question: which animals count as farm animals and can still be raised and eaten? The livestock catalogue was the answer, and dogs were not included.
What it did and did not change
The catalogue is easy to misread, so the limits are worth stating clearly:
- It changed a classification. Dogs were officially treated as companion animals rather than livestock, which removes them from the framework for commercial meat farming.
- It was not a nationwide ban on dog meat. No national law at the time explicitly prohibited eating dogs, and dog meat continued to be sold and eaten in some regions.
- Local rules went further. Shenzhen became the first mainland Chinese city to ban the eating of dogs and cats, as part of its own wildlife rules that took effect on 1 May 2020. Zhuhai followed with a similar ban soon after.
- Enforcement is a separate matter. Animal welfare groups continued to report dog theft and illegal slaughter after 2020.
Dog meat in China today
Eating dog has a long history in parts of China, where it was traditionally believed to warm the body in winter. It has always been a regional habit rather than a national one, and surveys suggest most Chinese people never eat it. A 2016 poll commissioned by HSI found that around two thirds of respondents wanted the Yulin festival ended and more than half supported a full ban on the trade.
HSI estimates that around 10 million dogs a year are killed for meat in China, including stolen pets and strays. The figure is an estimate by a campaign group and is hard to verify independently, but reporters have repeatedly documented dog theft linked to the trade.
The most famous flashpoint is the summer event in Yulin, in the Guangxi region, held around the June solstice since 2009. Local officials have described it as a commercial event rather than an ancient tradition. Estimates of how many dogs are eaten there vary widely and have fallen since the early 2010s under domestic and international pressure.
Why campaigners welcomed it
For animal welfare groups, the significance was symbolic as much as legal. A national ministry had, for the first time, said in writing that dogs are companions rather than food animals. Wendy Higgins of HSI told Reuters the draft "could signal a game-changer moment for animal protection in China."
Pet ownership has grown rapidly in Chinese cities, and younger, urban Chinese people have led much of the opposition to the trade. Activists hoped the classification would encourage more cities to follow Shenzhen and Zhuhai and make it harder to justify large-scale dog farming.
How this fits a wider shift
China is not alone. Taiwan banned the sale and eating of dog and cat meat in 2017, Hong Kong has prohibited slaughtering dogs and cats for food since 1950, and South Korea passed a law in January 2024 to end dog breeding and slaughter for meat by 2027. Each change followed years of campaigning and a gradual change in how people see dogs.
China's 2020 decision did not end the dog meat trade, but it put the government on record: in the official list of farm animals, dogs no longer belong.
Sources: CGTN: China reveals positive list of livestock and poultry, dogs excluded (June 2020); South China Morning Post: Dogs are pets, not food, says Chinese agriculture ministry; Wikipedia: Dog meat consumption in China; Wikipedia: Origin of SARS-CoV-2.
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