Dog meat is served in scattered restaurants around Shanghai. It is especially popular in the winter because the meat is believed to bolster one's constitution.
There is no law prohibiting residents from eating dog, though it is against the law to serve unregulated meat, said Zhang Yi, the former director of the Shanghai Small Animal Protection Association. And there are currently no regulatory standards for dog meat.
Animal protection groups suspect that workers from the slaughterhouse and others like it have been preying on pets in the city to increase their supply of illicit dog meat.
Gavin said his group has recently received more reports about missing dogs. "There must be a connection between the rising number of missing dogs and the dog slaughtering business. The business usually peaks when the weather gets colder and people eat dog out of tradition," he said.
Zhang said that most of the dog meat on the local market comes from stray dogs or pets taken from residents.
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