A Chinese company specialising in making dog meat dishes has claimed that eating dogs is a way for Chinese people to show their ‘cultural confidence’.

Fankuai Dog Meat from eastern China made the statement in a blog post while protesting against a proposed law which bans people from consuming pets in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

The brand claims that lawmakers in the city of Shenzhen drafted the proposal to appease the West.

Fankuai produces a wide range of dishes, including hand-shredded dog meat, spicy dog meat and dog meat braised in a turtle broth.

Based in the county of Pei in Jiangsu Province, the firm is named after an ancient Chinese general who allegedly made his living by butchering dogs in his early years.

The company published the strongly worded article last Thursday to condemn the potential policy from Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.

The commentary blasted the city’s plan as a ‘denial to thousands of years of Chinese food culture’.

It claimed that relevant officials had stood on the opposite side of the general public and drawn the proposal to appease the West, which is used to ‘bullying’ Chinese culture.

It also said that the proposal represented ‘extreme dog lovers’ and created ‘inharmonious social atmosphere’.

The firm said it supported Beijing’s new law to ban the eating of wild animals, but criticised the Shenzhen authority for extending the restriction ‘infinitely’ to including ‘livestock’.

It then argued that people in various Chinese provinces ‘have a history of eating dogs for two to three thousand years’, therefore the proposal ‘strips people of their freedom of eating dog meat’.

The article went on to allege that the proposition from Shenzhen protected the interests of ‘extreme dog lovers’.

‘Extreme dog lovers are influenced by the extremist thoughts from the West and appease Western rubbish culture without limit,’ it wrote.

The author concluded its criticism by urging Shenzhen not to pass the law.