Just last month 1.9m animals were slaughtered in a barbaric practice that has existed for hundreds of years.

The animals were beaten, electrocuted or even gassed to near-unconsciousness. Even though this is meant to knock them out, they are often still awake for what comes next – the throat slitting. They are strung up by their feet, and their throat cut from ear to ear, draining out all their blood. Sometimes the animals are still crying and kicking when they do this. Other types of animals are packed into huge crates, wheeled into a chamber and gassed to death.

But this isn’t happening in some distant country – this is all taking place in the British meat industry.

There has been a huge outcry over the Yulin dog and lychee festival in Guangxi, a south-western province of China, and with good reason. It is thought about 10,000 dogs (and cats) will be killed during the festival for their meat, which is a delicacy there.

It is horrific – photos have been circulating online of dogs crammed into crates and cages on their way to Yulin. But if you have ever seen pigs or sheep being transported, you’d know they’re also squashed up against each other in tightly packed crates, and driven uncomfortable distances to be gassed and slaughtered. It's a similarly heartbreaking sight.

Most meat and dairy-eating critics of the Yulin festival have said it’s not the fact that animals are being killed, but the “barbaric” way it’s done. So by that logic it would be acceptable if: the puppies were suffocated and ground up alive as soon as they are born, their throats were slit and their testicles cut off without anaesthetic, or the female dogs were forcibly impregnated so that the puppies could be slaughtered and the dogs could be hooked up to a contraption to extract the milk – when they stop producing milk they’re murdered. Because these are all accepted, “humane” practices from the British meat and dairy industries.

In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade Show all 13 1 /13 In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China A cat climbs up the cage at the slaughterhouse, trying to escape. This cat was later rescued by Peter Li In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China A slaughterhouse butcher transfers a cat to a cage, to be handed off to Peter Li. Shortly after, Li rescued the cat from the slaughterhouse AP/Humane Society International In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Two kitchen knives are shown stuck in an iron cage, which are used to butcher dozens of dogs and cats every day. These knives have to be sharpened daily due to the number of animals they're used to slaughter In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Caged dogs sit on the side of Renminzhong Road, waiting to be transferred to a slaughterhouse in a narrow alley AP/Humane Society International In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Workers are shown getting the day's dog and cat meat prepared for sale in the morning In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Dog meat is displayed in the marketplace In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Residents pick their dog meat from a stand on Riverside Road In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China A woman on her moped transports more than 10 dogs, which had just been slaughtered, to her market shop for sale AP/Humane Society International In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Hundreds of pet dogs await their own death in a slaughterhouse, while they watch as their companions are slaughtered in front of them AP/Humane Society International In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China A group of cats from Sichuan Province arrive at Renmin Middle Road on a truck, and wait to be transported on carts to a slaughterhouse in a narrow alley In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China A truck arrives in Yulin with nearly 1,000 dogs of various breeds crammed into narrow wire cages with no space to extend their limbs. According to the driver, the truck came from Sichuan, 800 miles west of Yulin. The traumatized dogs waited in silence for the next stop on their journey In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Dogs are hung up for sale for meat in Dong Kou market, as a dog looks on In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Peter Li holds a puppy's collar found at a slaughterhouse AP/Humane Society International

There’s actually no difference between Yulin and our meat industry, except quantity. 10,000 dogs will be slaughtered for the festival; almost 2m animals were slaughtered for meat in Britain last month, and will continue to be killed at the same rate.

It's good to hear that brave activists in China have acted against the festival. Some of them have driven long distances to Yulin to buy dogs in person and save them from slaughter. Yang Xiaoyun, for example, travelled all the way from Tianjin in northern China and spent more than £700 to rescue 100 dogs. She’s planning to set up a home to look after the dogs and has been met with mainstream praise in the west. But where is the praise for western activists such as Gary Yourofsky? He's done the same thing and released imprisoned animals from farms and laboratories – but activists like him have never been met with praise. They’re branded eco-terrorists.

The western distinction of “dog = friend, farm animal = food” is a completely arbitrary and false one. In Guangxi, dog = food. So the sudden outrage at a Chinese dog meat festival begs the question – why are meat eaters so comfortable criticising cruelty in a country 8,000 miles away, while actively supporting equally cruel and far larger-scale animal torture closer to home? Even Ricky Gervais – self-titled “animal avenger” and the main campaigner against Yulin – is, to my knowledge, a meat-eater (although he has said that he doesn't eat red meat, "to rule out any cruelty").

Anyone who genuinely cares about non-human animals won’t just fight against the injustices committed in faraway places. The only question you have to ask yourself is: do I care about animals? If you do, then it doesn't matter if its fluffy or cute, or if it's possible to own one as a pet. Slaughter is slaughter, and suffering is suffering.

So by all means sign the anti-Yulin petition, but don't pretend that the worst animal cruelty in the world is happening "over there". It's here as well, and won't stop until we realise that it's as much our problem as China's.