Shortly after, Li rescued the cat from the slaughterhouse 
 
 Peter Li, animal activist group Humane Society International’s China specialist, visited the market earlier this week and reported: “I saw cat and dog intestines and carcasses strung up. "The 'summer solstice lychee and dog meat festival' is a commercial term, the city has never (officially) organised a 'dog meat festival'," it added. Around 30 million households in the country are estimated to keep dogs as pets, helping to fuel the growing animal rights movement. In pictures: Yulin meat festival 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 show all In pictures: Yulin meat festival 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1/6 Yulin meat festival A man selling live dogs for meat Dog meat for sale at Dongkou Market, Yulin, Guangxi Zhuang, China (Photo by Sipa Asia/REX) 
 
 2/6 Yulin meat festival A dog vendor lifts up a dog to protest against animal rights activists coming to block the local dog meat festival (Photo: EPA/LI KE CHINA OUT) 
 
 3/6 Yulin meat festival Dog meat for sale at Dongkou Market in Yulin (Photo by Sipa Asia/REX) 
 
 4/6 Yulin meat festival Dog meat for sale at Dongkou Market, Yulin (Photo by Sipa Asia/REX ) 
 
 5/6 Yulin meat festival Dog meat for sale at Dongkou Market in Yulin (Photo by Sipa Asia/REX) 
 
 6/6 Yulin meat festival Animal rights activists in Rome try to reach the Embassy of China to protest against the Festival of Yulin, but are blocked by the police (Stefano Montesi/Demotix/Corbis) 
 
 Indeed, it has been reported that business is only getting better for the dog and cat meat traders as the controversy continues. Eating dog is not illegal in China, but the government called on meat vendors to respect food safety laws.
– Don't like the thought of dogs being served up with lychees? Neither does Yang Xiaoyun, a 65-year-old Chinese woman who saved 100 canines from being killed and served at a dog-meat festival in southern China, AFP reports. The animal lover paid about $1,100 yesterday for the dogs in the city of Yulin, and plans to take them home to Tianjin, about 1,240 miles away. Her gesture has drawn more attention to Yulin's controversial festival, where activists hold demonstrations, charge animal cruelty, and sometimes buy dogs so they won't get eaten. "I saw cat and dog intestines and carcasses strung up," an activist tells the Independent. "There were some dogs still alive in wire cages, but they looked exhausted, emaciated, and dirty." Locals say the dogs are killed in a humane manner at Yulin's festival, where people eat dog meat with lychees—but the tide in China may be turning against the practice. Roughly 30 million Chinese households are said to have dogs now, while more young people are moving into cities and buying animals for companionship, CNN reports. What's more, the city of Guangzhou—known for serving dogs and cats—just shut down a dog-meat restaurant. But while officials have criticized the Yulin festival, they stop short of imposing a legal ban against the slaughter of cats and dogs. "Yulin is an open, tolerant and civilised city," says the city's news office. "We welcome people across the world to pay attention to Yulin."