Ricky Gervais Speaks Out Against Horrifying Dog Meat Festival

Funnyman and provocateur Ricky Gervais has once again used his celebrity to bring attention to an important issue facing our beloved animal brethren. This time, he's advocating for dogs.

On Wednesday morning, he posted the following photo to Facebook.

He captioned the photo with a powerful indictment against the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, which takes place annually in Guangxi, China. "The dogs are tortured to 'make the meat tastier.' They are also skinned and boiled alive. It's not a food festival. It's Hell," he wrote.

Unfortunately, too many dogs are victims to this belief. Take, for example, Chi Chi, the dog who lost all her paws in the dog meat industry in South Korea. She was recently rescued and now lives with a loving family in Arizona, but most dogs in the meat trade aren't so lucky.

Ten thousand dogs were killed in one weekend at last year's festival, but Humane Society International (HSI) worked with local activists to help save hundreds of dogs.

While China has a long history of using dogs as meat, the festival itself is a relatively new tradition, created by an entrepreneurial group of dog meat traders.

As of now, the Yulin Dog Meat Festival has no signs of slowing down. Gervais is one of the many voices calling for an end to the "celebration", along with international figures and local government and restaurants.

In his Facebook post, Gervais included a link, encouraging people to sign HSI's petition to end to the festival.