The Swiss government expressed sympathy but said diplomatic interference was not "appropriate" in what was essentially a cultural matter.
The Saint Bernard advocates have since taken their case to the International Olympic Committee, asking its president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, to turn down China's bid to be the host of the 2008 Olympics because of the country's culinary use of a breed that has saved so many human lives.
But the outcry abroad has not reached Peixian, where residents seemed puzzled when told of the campaign. The foreign breeds come mostly from Russia, Han said. And they are not eaten, in any case, because purebreds are too valuable and all dogs taste pretty much the same.
A pedigree Saint Bernard or Dalmatian, for example, costs more than US$1,000. Crossing one of those dogs with a local bitch produces two litters of eight to 10 puppies a year. Each crossbred puppy grows to about 50kg in six months, when it can fetch about 400 yuan, (nearly US$50), half of that profit.
"It's twice as profitable as raising pigs," Han said.
There is not plenty for dog lovers to complain about in Peixian, where 300,000 dogs are butchered a year, half for local consumption and half for export to other parts of China and both Koreas.
But the killing of animals in any country is never pretty.
In a small village of brick-walled courtyards not far from Han's farm, Wang Junhua showed a visitor where he slaughters and skins as many as 20 dogs at a time: a series of bloody puddles beneath a crossbeam affixed to a line of weeping willow trees.
After it is slaughtered and skinned, the dog is quartered and soaked in cold water for about an hour before cooking. Wang stews his dog in a huge galvanized cauldron -- head, paws, tails and all. The intestines are stuffed into the stomachs and stewed.
As Wang fished in the cauldron for a dog's hindquarters, two large black masses of herbs wrapped in cheesecloth rolled to the surface.
He sells the dog hides to factories that make dog-fur hats, fur-lined pants and vests and even blankets favored by peasants during the frigid months.
He delivers the meat to restaurants and street vendors around town each morning before the breakfast crowd. The vendors set a meaty skull up on the edge of their baskets to beckon passers-by.
Under the awnings, a woman holding her toddler stopped to buy two sandwiches from a man who pulled the meat from a dog's rib cage, his fingers glistening with grease. No one seemed upset by the spooked look of the live dogs bound for slaughter, their ears flattened and heads lowered, with anxiety in their shiny black eyes.
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