AFP - Getty Images

A Chinese animal lover rescues a newborn puppy after a convoy of trucks carrying some 500 dogs to be sold as meat, were stopped along a highway in Beijing early April 17, and the dogs were later rescued by the China Animal Protection Association. There were about 58 million pet dogs in 20 major Chinese cities at the end of 2009 and the figure is rising about 30 percent each year, according to a survey, as pet owners in China spend an estimated two billion USD a year on their animals.

Newborn puppy and nearly 500 other dogs saved from slaughterhouse in China as debate on incident follows

By Katie Cannon, Senior Multimedia Editor

Apparently in order to save the dogs, the truck driver had to be paid 100,000 yuan, or about $15,300. The rescue has since triggered a debate among some Chinese that pouring so much money and effort into saving dogs is questionable when there are so many poor and needy people who are lacking in China. You can read more about the incident in which volunteers armed with food and water for the dogs swarmed the truck in order to get it to stop and the debate that followed here.

While dog has been served since before 500 B.C. in China, it is now only socially acceptable in the southern part of the country. However, there is a growing movement against the consumption of cat and dog meat in China, and in 2008 it was taken off menus during the Olympics to avoid offending visitors from foreign countries. You can read more on the history of dog meat around the world from Wikipedia.

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