For many residents of the town of Yulin in southern China, the peak of summer is the perfect time to get together with family and friends — and consume copious amounts of dog meat.
Thousands of dogs are expected to end up on the chopping block during the city's annual dog meat festival, which has become increasingly controversial in China.
Dog ownership was once looked down upon as a decadent bourgeois habit, but China's growing middle class has started to fight what it sees as barbarous abuse of man's best friend.