A long-tailed macaque grabs a necklace from a statue during the annual Monkey Buffet Festival at the Pra Prang Sam Yot temple in Lopburi, north of Bangkok November 30, 2014. The festival provides food and drinks to the local monkey population, which numbers more than 2,000, to thank them for drawing tourists to the town. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Yulin, a city in southern China, celebrates the summer solstice by throwing a festival that involves the slaughter and consumption of as many as 10,000 dogs. Not everyone in China supports such practices, however; 65-year-old Yang Xiaoyun, a retired teacher who runs an animal shelter in Tianjin, traveled more than 2,400 km (1,500 miles) and spent more than 7,000 yuan ($1,100 or €990) to save 100 dogs from certain death.

Jury member Nicole Kidman attends the Jury Press Conference. (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)

Participants in costumes attend the first day of the annual Wave-Gotik Treffen, or Wave and Goth Festival, on May 17, 2013 in Leipzig, Germany. (Photo bilderkiste)

Actress Angelina Jolie (L) and actor Jack Black attend the “Kung Fu Panda 2” photocall during the 64th Annual Cannes Film Festival at the Carlton Hotel on May 12, 2011 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)

Director Don Hahn attends “The Lion King 3D” Premiere during the 6th International Rome Film Festival on November 4, 2011 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Getty Images/Getty Images)

Anti-nuclear activists demonstrate during a “Say to Goodbye to Nuclear Energy” protest on September 11, 2011 in Kobe, Japan. Japan is marking sixth months since a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck Japan offshore on March 11 at 2:46pm local time, triggering a tsunami wave of up to ten metres which engulfed large parts of north-eastern Japan and also damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing the worst nuclear crisis in decades. The current number of dead and missing is reportedly estimated to be 22,900. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

Yasothon resident look on as huge, handmade rockets are launched into the air during the Bun Bang Fai festival on May 11, 2014 in Yasothon, Thailand. During the Bun Bang Fai rocket festival, Thai residents launch enormous home-made rockets into the air to gain Buddhist merit and to celebrate the beginning of the rainy season. (Photo by Taylor Weidman/Getty Images)