Think of it as one of those good-news/bad-news stories:
Hundreds of dogs being trucked to Chinese restaurants were spared a culinary fate after about 200 animal lovers mobilised to stop them ending up on dinner tables, state-run media said Monday.
A truck crammed with the dogs was forced to stop Friday on a highway in eastern Beijing by a motorist who swerved his car in front of the truck and then used his microblog to alert animal-rights activists, reports said. … The China Daily quoted activists saying many of the dogs still had collars with bells and name tags, indicating they had been stolen from their owners….
I don’t want to come off as culturally insensitive, but I can’t help but root for the non-culinary Chinese “animal lovers.” For while I have no doubt that properly prepared, dog could be delicious, I’ve got a tough time understanding how anybody could choose to eat this:
- Mmm… perhaps slow-cooked with onions?
UPDATE: Hmm. The shih tzu is a Chinese breed. So perhaps this explains why they eat dogs in China. (Slog tipper: Puty)
People eat dogs and cats the same way that they eat lambs and calves–they may be cute, but they are tasty.
Right. Animal activists know that the life of a dog is no more sacred than the life of a pig, cow or any other vertebrate for that matter.
Raising animals for food is inherently cruel, and us meat eaters either embrace this or end up in a morally ambiguous position.
Well, I’d no more eat a dog in a Chinese restaurant than I would the hormone & antibotic- laden & shit-infested factory farmed meat found on supermarket shelves.
Once again, its “Perpepuate Horrible Stereotypes” day on The Stranger!
Hmmm dont gays and lesbians suffer from horrible stereotypes? Some of which are perpeuated by a fringe minority?
Try being hungry. I mean really hungry. I mean where your body has consumed itself until all that’s left are bones and stressed organs. That dog would taste like heaven.
bunny rabbit sure is delicious slow-cooked with onions.
@4 – Huh, what stereotype? Not only do Chinese people eat dogs, this is literally a news story about dogs being transported to restaurants in China to be eaten.
Vince, @5: I don’t know that anybody that hungry is paying up to eat in a restaurant, and these dogs were headed for restaurants.
The argument can certainly be made that eating dogs/cats/horses/guinea pigs etc. is no worse than eating cows, pigs, goats. Really, if you break it down, what’s the difference? The ones we choose to love vs. the ones we choose to eat is really based just on who’s cutest and cuddliest. (And yeah, probably some economics as well). But it distresses me greatly that many of these dogs are stolen family pets. Horrifying to think of that fate befalling any pet, or its family.
Yes, but you can totally see why someone would choose to eat this, this or this.
I’m with you, mostly. Being the product of the same cultural conditioning as you, I cringe at the very thought of roasting dogs or cats. But let’s not kid ourselves, we are being arbitrary. There is no objective difference between roasting a lamb and roasting a Golden Retriever. I would eat one and not the other, I won’t pretend I’m on any moral high ground while I’m doing it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentri…
Dogs, cats and rabbits breed and grow quickly and their meats are leaner. Objectively they make better meat options than cows. Think of all the millions of strayed dogs and cats in animal shelters in this country – they should ship them to China and Korea.
I hate to rain on the cultural relativism parade, but there is absolutely a difference between eating dogs and eating cows, sheep, and the like.
Dogs have evolved alongside humans for tens of thousands of years longer than any other animal. Though they have been used a food source, they were mainly domesticated as pets, guards, and workers for humans. Domesticated sheep, pigs, etc. have been food and hide sources from day one.
Dogs have a special relationship to humanity. Don’t trip.
the world is a cruel place where one creature thrives upon the demise of other creatures. have yet to see anyone get around this one (other than the budha (maybe)). the way in which the cruelty of the world demonstrates itself is different in different places.
@12, also, even the most dedicated cow and pig eater would find objectionable a shipment of cows and pigs that had been stolen from their owners.
I don’t have any particular problem with people eating pretty much any animal they can breed and make tasty. Every animal’s got to eat, including us, and dogs would have no problem eating human if you served it up for them. The only thing I have a problem with here is stealing peoples pets for dinner. That’s fucked up.
Ah yes, the “Eating animals is okay unless they’re cute, in which case it’s evil” argument. Reminds me of when Kentucky banned the sale of horses for food purposes.
Sorry, #12, but that’s not a very good reason NOT to eat them. We could say the same thing about almost any farm animal. Pigs, cows, sheep, and goats are no less domesticated than dogs, cats, and horses and there have been cultures that have treated them with the same regard.
Certainly there’s nothing scientific or objective about the morality of this difference in treatment.
@8 What I was trying to say was the Chinese have a long history of severe famines. Those things have a way of becoming a part of the culture.
Mr. Harriman! I look forward to your puppy free cupcakes tomorrow.
For those of you in the Seattle area, a reminder that you can partake of the aforementioned pastries at:
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Please pass on this information today in whatever threads you visit.
@17: What it comes down to is everyone draws an arbitrary line between what they’ll eat and what they won’t; some will eat almost anything, whereas some extreme vegans won’t even eat food that requires killing the plant it came from.
That’s all fine but it gets a little suspicious when they start arguing their arbitrary line has the force of universal morality behind it.
@18: It’s funny how a culture’s cuisine is often defined by what poor people eat at home, isn’t it?
Arsenic7 @17, Dogs ARE more domesticated than pigs, cows, sheep, and goats. By and large, people don’t use pigs to guard their house. People don’t take their cows for walks. Nobody’s goat brings them their slippers and the newspaper in the morning.
The reason those things don’t happen is because, while those other animals are domesticated, they aren’t domesticated to the same extent that dogs have been. Which makes sense, given that dogs were living with humans 20,000 years before sheep were kept in a pen.
Anyway, I’m not trying to say that I wouldn’t eat a dog under desperate circumstances. If the apocalypse hits and there is no other food source, Fido is going on the spit. What I’m saying is that there is a damn good reason people are repulsed by the idea of eating mankind’s most enduring animal companion.
@17 kitchnsync is right.
Look up “left gaze bias”.
Dogs are so much more domesticated than any other animal, some scientist theorize that they are actually parasitic. That they are evolutionary specialist who specialized in being lovable to humans.
@21,@22 except for feral dogs. I know in Korea when eating dogs used to be legal they had separate companion dogs and eating dogs. The eating dogs were raised similarly to cow, pigs, chicken and not seen as pets.
We do this kind of compartmentalization all the time. I don’t think we should be treating those choices as horrible (@10 has a good point) but I don’t think stealing someone’s pet is an acceptable thing to do at all!
I’m not a fan of eating intelligent animals. Most herbivores are prey, but carnivores and especially omnivores are off the table.
@23 By my system of ethics, eating dog is not horrible.
My point, and what I understand to be kitschnsync’s point, is that our visceral aversion to eating dog is not some random, cultural preference.
To offer another preference in contrast, our aversion to eating insects. That’s just taught. Period. I am not aware of any deep reason our species would come to evolve an instinctual disgust at the idea of eating insects. I look at people who do eat insects and it grosses me the fuck out and I know that reaction is ethnocentrism. Our aversion to eating dog goes way deeper than that.
@25 It’s still not proven to me. Dogs are extremely empathetic and there’s plenty of information out there about the endosymbiosis of domesticated dogs and humans. But I think it is partially cultural still, especially some of the various reasons that I’ve been given that they eat certain animals–that they have a certain type of medicinal qi, etc.
My point is I think we should be more concerned with the shitty lives of other certain dogs…like feral populations on the Indian reservations or strays all over! So what I am getting at is maybe just encourage spaying/neutering–don’t let your pup have babies. Some people think it’s really cute that dogs can have their own pups, so they let them! Or they can’t stand to have them spayed/neutered so they relegate them to a life of early cancers and other health problems. I’ve seen this attitude in gentrified, well-to-do Seattleites and it’s amazing to me. Pearl clutching over someone else’s delicacy or how they treat what one would consider Fido is small in the scale of things.
As an aside, what’s with the outrage over this as opposed to the Chinese government’s recent continuation of the violent oppression of Tibet, other religions that refuse to cede to the state sanctioned organizations, and democratic dissidents?
Actually, even if you are a horribly cruel, inhumane carnivore, there are still reasons not to eat dog. Ones that are not quite as arbitrary as vegans would try to make you wretched excuses for humanity believe.
Dogs are predators. They only thrive on meat. Dogs *can* be raised on plant-based proteins, but not well. That means that the energy to raise a dog must be processed by a plant, then processed by an herbivore before it can be made into dog meat. There’s a lot more energy loss involved in eating predator eat. And yes, this includes tuna, you clearly superior vegetarians.
Eating predators is inefficient. They’re still made of meat. If I were starving, I’d eat mine. But it’s a terrible waste.
what caught my eye the most in the article was the reference to STEALING. not cultural relativism.
i’d assume stealing is viewed as wrong in China as well as in the USA. no cultural relativism necessary.
@28 Well, that’s great for you but we were commenting on Goldy’s aversion to eating dogs, which is sort of the subject of the whole last half of the post.
@27, What has tuna got to do with vegetarians?
@ 26, endosymbiosis refers to when one organism lives within another. Did you just mean “symbiotic relationship?” If so, there’s just as much information on that regarding all domesticated animals, and even crops like corn.
@ 27, people who eat fish are not vegetarians. Don’t let the ones who call themselves that fool you.
For me human being is killing everthing which is a big mistake. I hope that people like you who help this evil things to happen be the next to be killed and eaten!!!!!!
Meat eaters are funny with how they try to justify they’re picking and choosing.
Of course I eat fish, but that’s because anything the can’t breathe air is obviously not entitled to any respect.
@31 Thanks for the correction. That’s exactly what I meant.
@21: You said: “there is a damn good reason people are repulsed by the idea of eating mankind’s most enduring animal companion”.
And @25 echoes you, saying: “our visceral aversion to eating dog is not some random, cultural preference”.
And yet the article states that eating dogs and cats is one of the “centuries-old culinary practices” of China:
So what is your conclusion? Are you saying that Chinese people are inherently morally inferior to Americans? Then what is your justification of eating lambs, pigs, calves, ducks, bunnies, etc. to the vegetarian who might challenge your moral values?
I think we can all agree that stealing people’s pets is wrong. But you (and the people who agree with you) seem to be walking a pretty fine line to be taking the moral high ground here by arguing that humans are inherently averse to eating dogs, but okay with eating everything else. Are the Chinese not human, or what? And where do vegetarians fit into your moral scheme?
@ 34, you’re welcome.
@ 35 is correct. I bet if we were in the Middle East, people would probably be talking about the “visceral aversion” to eating pig and shellfish.
The decisions regarding what animals are and aren’t okay to eat is completely cultural. There may have been some pragmatic reasons behind it all those millenia ago, or arbitrary ones, but there was nothing instinctual about those choices or how they came to be taboo in some cultures but not others.
Certified crazy dog lady right here but I do agree with the sentiments already expressed that the animals we choose to eat and those whose status we elevate is largely cultural. I tend to be biased towards eating only herbivorous animals, though that line may be completely arbitrary.
However, it’s worth noting that the dog in that photo has a seriously serious case of the ADORABLES made even more so by the ears of epic awesomeness. Looooove
This is a very interesting discussion
I have to admit, I frequently have a hard time with China…
From the rape of Tibet to Tiananmen Square, the killing of girl babies to the censorship of the internet, even the cheating Olympic gymnastic team and the damn pretty little girl lip-synching the words of the (considered less pretty) other little girl… I just have to ask the question sometimes: What The Fuck Is Wrong With China?!?
Last week Lindy showed us a cute picture of a baby turtle, but when you clicked on the turtle to get to the next interesting picture, the next picture was of a fucking nightmare!!!!!! That is happening now in China!!!!!
http://tinyurl.com/3f78luu
These are not just examples of cultural ethnocentricity — these are examples of things being really, truly fucked up in China. China presents to the rest of the world as a giant neurotic, unwilling to show a true face to the world, unwilling to allow its own people to be free. I look forward to the day when China grows the fuck up, but I doubt it will be in my lifetime.
And yeah, there is something wrong with eating dogs in a GODDAMNED RESTAURANT. We’re not talking starvation here, this is considered some kinda yummy. Leaving aside the obviously indefensible practice of STEALING PETS to slaughter them and feed them to restaurant guests, there is just no reason OTHER than starvation to kill and eat a canine. Canines evolved in partnership with humans, beginning over 30,000 years ago. What began as a mutually beneficial partnership back in the caveman days has now become the closest, most intimate relationship of man’s with another creature — a relationship that was NEVER based upon eating one side of the team.
I realize that this is a debate that can rage for hundreds of posts, but IMO, kitchensync has it exactly correct.
When Vegans introduce a *convincing* artificial dog-meat, maybe people will be enticed to give up the real thing.
Is this the thread where we come to be sanctimonious axe-grinding douche bags?
[Reads comments]
Oh. Good I see that it is.
The issue is they were stealing peoples pets for food.
You ever heard of cattle rustling? Or maybe even theft of personal property? Property that you happen to be deeply emotionally attached to. Okay. Now combine that with killing (erasing from existence) that thing.
Yeah. That’s the problem.
@39, Yes, an entire country is responsible for the stupid and horrible things that some people who live there do.
Are you American? Because the US invaded Iraq for no reason; our athletes all cheat by using steroids; our people fight for their RIGHT to own a deadly, killing weapon; our kids take those weapons to school and shoot other kids; our government takes money from the rich and protects their interests at the cost of everyone else’s; we produced a horrible music video that …; the majority population doesn’t treat the minority population as if they were equal at all. Man, if you judged all Americans by what goes on in Arizona and Florida, the list would go on forever.
WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THE US!?!
You could come up with a list of horrible things that happen in any county (except maybe Sweden?), so yes, it is totally ethnocentrism. The fact that you do not realize it is ethnocentrism makes it even worse ethnocentrism!
By the way, I just love these Slog posts that serve to reinforce whatever stereotypes you have about the world. Goldy seems to love these China stories, even when they are fake news.
@35 I wasn’t talking about morality at all. I have no idea why you think an evolved response is somehow moral or a high ground.
I wrote that dogs can be described as parasitic because of how strongly we respond to them by wanting to love and care for them instead of eat them. I wrote that, according to my system of ethics, eating dog is not horrible.
“I look forward to the day when China grows the fuck up, but I doubt it will be in my lifetime.”
You sound pretty…ethnocentric.
Let me know when Americans grow the fuck up and stop euthanizing millions of dogs and cats, or demand that their government not collude with BP to coverup one of the largest environmental catastrophes in history, or enforce an energy policy that doesn’t contribute to speciescide–all because they have the emotional maturity and metacognitive aptitude zygotes. Same could be said for most everybody.
@39
This is just stupefyingly racist. Just cause you vote Democrat doesn’t mean you ain’t a bigoted ignoramus. Crack open a dictionary and look up ‘ethnocentric’, then look at the mirror.
China does some fucked up shit. The good ol USA does some fucked up shit too.
FYI – there is archaeological evidence that dogs were consumed by caveman humans. Pigs can do all the things dogs can, and better too, because they actually have independent personalities rather than mirroring whatever their idiot owner feels. I wager you ain’t got no problem eating Babe, though, cause they’re proper food, not the same as some chinks eating dogs crap.
Strange. I’m pretty sure I didn’t mention race once in my post, and yet .. some of you seem to think that’s all I’m talking about….
And for those “Ooo America Sucks SO MUCH WORSE than China!” types, let me introduce you to Logical Fallacy #2 – Ad Hominem Tu Quoque: http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies…
Sorry, gonna have to give some of y’all a D- for Reading Comprehension Fail.
HINT: Not everything is about race or the dreadful horribleness of America. You can unclench your buttocks now.
@46 Were you not making an equivalence between age old traditions (like eating dogs) and generalizing other things that China needs to “grow up over.” Also, I don’t introduce in the supposed argument what America does to make your argument invalid but to show that there’s problems closer to home where your outrage can actually effect an outcome. I actually agree with you that the government “acts neurotic” but you did impugn the people.
“And yeah, there is something wrong with eating dogs in a GODDAMNED RESTAURANT.”
You might want to look up “appeal to belief”, “appeal to popularity”, “appeal to common practice” if we’re going to start talking about logical fallacies.
I love shish ka-bow-wow!
@ 47 – You’re being willfully obtuse.
I said “China presents…”, not “Chinese people present…”. The people within China who are putting their lives on the line to not only rescue animals, but to also, for example, call for free speech, free commerce, free elections, etc etc.. are some of the bravest people on the planet today. Are you not able to draw a distinction between a nation’s official policies and practices, and the people caught in those policies?
Or would you like to defend the China that has imprisoned Ai Weiwei? Or how about the China that has surrounded the Tibetan monastery, 2500 monks inside, after a young monk immolated himself there last month?
Which particular China would you like to defend, and which do you think I’m ‘impugning’?
I have eaten some things that would be considered odd to Westerners in China. Some of it is “gross” (pigeon, eel) to us, but normal to them (oh, and both those things are delicious). Some of it is “cruel” (turtle springs to mind…not so delicious, so I normally pass). Some of it is just “strange” (jellyfish springs to mind…also not so delicious, but basically flavorless, crunchy, a good filler, and an excellent way to impress your host). And some of it is just a consequence of the poverty influence and “using the whole animal” (frog fat soup, cow aorta, various sweetbreads…mixed results on the tastiness of these). I find the practice of eating cats and dogs doesn’t comport with my Western sensibilities of keeping these animals as pets, and I’m glad to report that I’ve never been served them or even seen them on a restaurant menu.
But this story is reprehensible. It’s on the order of shark fin soup (which I am sad to report that I have tried once because a very gracious host ordered it…FYI, it was TERRIBLE making it all the more a disgusting display of opulence) because these were stolen pets. In sum, if you raise an animal to be a food source, or hunt it, that’s a wholly different situation than just picking up what is clearly a pet – with tags and all – and shipping it off to a restaurant as profit. I understand the poverty that many Chinese people live in, and how raising/doing anything they can to sell for money would be attractive, but stealing someone’s pet (more and more Chinese are keeping dogs and cats as pets, in all income groups) to sell as food is just disgusting. Even if your neighbor kept a chicken as a food source, would it be okay to steal it and sell it to a restaurant? No, well then picking up a loose dog or stealing a non-loose dog with tags is just as bad, if not worse.
@49 And you’re a demonstrated hypocrite. Btw, go read the last graph at @26 and please continue to lecture us all on reading comprehension and logic.
You’re impugning part of the culture when you criticize eating of things seemingly exotic–gasp, in a restaurant!
Adding: When you use the synecdoche “China needs to grow up”–that could indict MORE than the government in that statement. Right?
Here’s a crazy thought: maybe the reason we don’t eat dogs is because until the very recent idea of “pet” dogs the main reason we had dogs in the west was to help us get more meat. A long long time ago (like almost 100 years) meat didn’t come from a magical land we never had to see. For the majority, if you wanted meat you had to either hunt or grow it. You know who’s great at herding and hunting and protecting livestock at night? Dogs. The reason we don’t eat dogs is because until two or three generations ago it made about as much sense to eat a dog as it made to eat your fucking hands.
@53 “The reason we don’t eat dogs is because until two or three generations ago it made about as much sense to eat a dog as it made to eat your fucking hands.”
Tell that to the various people (not just Asians, but some Native Americans, Africans, Germans, Swiss) who’ve been doing it for more than “two or three generations.” There’s a whole other world out there.
@54 Perhaps I should have been more specific when I said “we” but OK, I obviously can’t tell everyone in the world who eats dogs but here goes:
Dear Asians, Africans, Native Americans, Germans, and Citizens of Switzerland (and anyone else who’s uncle once ate a dog). The reason non-native Americans don’t eat dogs is because over the course of our stupid stupid conquest of this land we were very hungry for most of the time and we found dogs to be invaluable in helping us find and kill wild animals as well as helping to herd and protect the domesticated animals we might be lucky enough to possess. Sure sometimes when pioneering the outskirts of “civilization” as we like to call it, we were forced to eat our dogs (and each other), but given the amount of meat a dog would get us vs. the amount of meat a dogs is- for most of (non-native) american history IT MADE ABOUT AS MUCH SENSE TO EAT A DOG AS IT MADE TO EAT YOUR FUCKING HANDS.
Then Henry Ford invented the factory and we all moved into the city and forgot about that hunting and ranching shit, and now dogs are for wearing bandannas- but that’s another story.
I know it’s a big world out there and most of you guys do things a little differently and live in climates where dogs might not be so helpful, or maybe there’s a lot of ’em just running all over the place. No judgement here it’s just how we got by, but who knows, now that we don’t really need them anymore and given the increasingly adventerous pallets of today’s American meat eater their days may be numbered.
Was that OK dirac?
Sorry to get a little long winded, I’d be more than happy to have a conversation concerning who eats dogs and why or why not with an Asian, Indigenous American, African, German, or even an exotic Swix (or whatever they’re called in the singular) any day.
@55 Lol. Yeah, that was good. I didn’t know you were talking specifically about just “we” Anglo-Saxons.
All I want to say is that I carry a bandana in my bag wherever I go, just in case I need to sass up a dog.
Check out this Korean-American food blog logo. I now realize that she’s holding a fish, but at first glance if you see (as I did) the lips as a nose, the gill/side fin as a mouth with the tongue hanging out and the top and bottom fins as ears….
@55, wow, nice anthropology lesson. do tell more about how the non-”we“ is able to spread all over the world, those goddamn dog-eater beasts.