Cruel Slaughter

Once pulled out from its cage, the raccoon dog curls up into a ball in mid-air.
A few middle-aged women carrying wooden clubs gather round. One woman in a headscarf is first to grab hold of the raccoon dog’s tail and the others drift away peevishly.

The woman in the headscarf swings the animal upwards. It forms an arc in the air and is then slammed heavily to the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust.

The raccoon dog tries to stand up, its paws scrabbling in the grit. The wooden club in the woman’s hand swings down onto its forehead. The woman picks up the animal and walks towards the other side of road, throwing it onto a pile of other raccoon dogs.

A stream of blood trickles from its muzzle, but its eyes are open and it continues to repeatedly blink, move its paws, raise its head and collapse to the ground. Beside it lies another raccoon dog. Its four limbs have been hacked off but still it continues to yelp.

Ten or more minutes later Qin Lao approaches the raccoon dog with a knife. His job is to skin the animals. The raccoon dog is suspended upside down from a hook on the overhead bar of a motor-tricycle and the area around the hind legs and anus is scored with the knife. There is a ripping sound as the skin is torn completely from the hind legs and the animal struggles to turn away, crying out. The skin is ripped up to the abdomen.

Qin Lao’s body is bent with effort like a bow at full stretch, but the fur remains stubbornly attached to the flesh. A middle-aged woman jogs over to help, and their backs arched with the strain. The whole fur is finally ripped from the raccoon dog’s body.

The animal is thrown onto the back of the truck, steam rising from its blood-red body. It tries to stand up again, lifting its head and glancing down at its own body. Without blinking it tries once more to turn its head and then falls still.

‘Skinning the animal dead or alive is all the same, but it is more convenient and neater this way. Everyone has always doneit like this’, explains Qin Lao.