This year, a Tibetan Mastiff puppy reportedly sold for almost $2 million in China, making it the priciest dog ever purchased.
Originally domesticated as sheepherding guard dogs in the Tibetan Plateau, these large, puffy-haired, and extremely uncooperative canines are prized by wealthy Chinese for their alleged ferociousness (one zoo even tried to pass a Tibetan Mastiff off as a lion, according to some reports – Over the past decade, Tibetan Mastiffs have become a status symbol for a growing class of new moneyed entrepreneurs. VICE China went to the the 2014 Yidu Tibetan Mastiff Fair in Tianjin to learn more.
Watch ‘Dining on Dogs in Yulin’ –
Read: Has China’s One-Child Policy Bred a Generation of Dog Lovers? –
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