Photos From China’s Annual Dog Meat Festival

China’s annual dog meat festival, which sees thousands of canines butchered and eaten, was held on Monday amid protests from animal rights activists.

The city in the southeastern region of Guangxi holds an annual festival on the summer solstice devoted to the consumption of dog meat, in defiance of an increasing backlash from animal rights activists. As many as 10 million dogs are killed for food annually in China, with up to 10,000 killed for the Yulin festival. On Monday, traders openly sold dogs off the back of scooters as hundreds gathered at a market. Many dogs were kept in tightly packed cages.

Activists, who say the festival is cruel, have in the past travelled to the city to hold demonstrations, sometimes buying dogs to save them from the cooking pots.

This year the festival has also been targeted by British comedian Ricky Gervais, who posted a series of messages on Twitter with the hashtag “StopYuLin2015″, writing on Sunday: “It should be called a Dog Torture Festival. Because that’s what it is.”