Dogs in Bali are brutally tortured and slaughtered for meat, which is served to Australian tourists unknowingly, an investigation revealed. The graphic footage shows how dogs are caught and tortured before they are killed for meat.
Animals Australia organisation carried out the probe and shot the horrifying video. The investigation shows dogs being bludgeoned, strangled or poisoned before their meat is sold as chicken satay sticks to tourists on the beaches.
"When we embarked on this investigation, we didn't have any idea that we would be documenting that dog meat is entering into tourist areas," Animals Australia's Lyn White said on ABC's 7.30 program.
WARNING: Some readers may find the video disturbing
"Whilst eating dog meat is not illegal in Bali, killing animals cruelly or eating meat contaminated with poison is against the law," White said, adding, "The dog-meat trade breaches animal cruelty laws and food safety laws. That is a statement of fact."
The footages show a meat vendor approaching a group of Australian tourists to sell the meat. "Just one dollar... satay chicken... not dog," the vendor said in the video.
However, when Animals Australia approached the vendor, he said that it is dog satay.
"This is why you have a picture of a dog here?" the investigator asked and pointed to the dog photo on the box. "Yeah, yeah," he replied.
"Aside from the cruelty, the greatest shock was to discover that tourists are unwittingly eating dog meat," the investigator told the broadcaster. "A group of Aussie tourists enjoyed the dog meat satays so much they went back for seconds. Yet had they known the origin of the meat they would have been sickened."
"This is a profoundly distressing situation. Not only is the suffering of the dogs horrifying, tourists are unwittingly fuelling the trade. Most tourists have no idea that the letters RW on the outside of popular street food stalls in Bali indicates that dog meat is being served," White said.
