Chinese dog-eating festival outrages foreigners

Each year during summer solstice, it's thought that 10,000 dogs are cooked and eaten in Yulin, in in southern China, as part of the city's yearly dog meat festival. Although it's not illegal to eat dog meat in China, opinion is divided on how deep the "tradition" really runs.

Chinese dog-eating festival outrages foreigners

He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals. Immanuel Kant

Difficult one this, as it shows a difference between the Western European-based cultures who generally treat dogs with respect, and some parts of the Eastern cultures who like to eat dogs.

I like dogs and consider this type of behaviour to be an affront. Dogs are different from other animals as they have evolved in partnership with humans, although I doubt this has much truck in a dog restaurant in Guangxi province.

However, the problem is deeper than just a dog-eating festival, as dogs are used in the leather trade and for other body parts. In fact, dogs - like any animal in China - live pretty horrid lives. In China the words "animal welfare" have not found translation.

Apart from people joining in the social media backlash against this type of thing, we can take wider action by not buying Chinese goods. This is quite difficult, I know, but boycotting any product that may have animal "parts" e.g. leather or glue, may be a good start. Also, if you are travelling to China, you may want to scrutinise what you eat!

Because I think it's revolting and I would not look at them anyway, I will not post links to the many YouTube videos cataloguing Chinese treatment of animals and dogs, nor will I post the results of a Google image search "Chinese +dog +eating" as I expect that will be unkind.

> 10,000 Dogs Tortured as Part of Annual Yulin Dog-Eating Festival
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> Joaquin Phoenix speaks out after watching horrific video of dogs being brutally slaughtered in China to be made into LEATHER
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> Dog and Human Genomes Evolved Together

Never understood why anybody gets upset by people any particular type of animal.

You can either eat them all or none or its just hypocrisy (or for religious beliefs - although i don't think any religion says you can't eat dog)

a reply to: paraphi

Well, I've just had a bunch of members tear me a new one because I have views contrary to their own with regards to alcohol and alcoholics, so I tread lightly here, but put it this way...

How do Indians view us with regards to our eating or cattle? For many Indians, it is an actual sacred animal (so much so they won't even move a cow if it sits in the road) so for us to mince them up and put them in a burger must also be an "affront".

At the end of the day, if they like to chow down on dog, kudos to them. Stay away from the liver and you're fine. I can't imagine it tastes very nice or that you get very much quality meat off a dog, but then again all Chinese food is of questionable quality anyway, which I suspect is a hangover for the "Great Leap Forward" when most Chinese were starving and anything edible was eaten.

"Deep fried scorpions and donkey crap - sure, want noodles with that?"

originally posted by: stumason
Deep fried scorpions

Yep, not too bad, I preferred the tarantula's though.
I've probably eaten a fair bit of dog when in Asia before now, just didn't realise it.
Meh, wouldn't bother me, only issue I have is the welfare of the dog before and while it is killed, once it's dead it's just protein to me.

I love my dog.

I enjoyed Gaegogi when I had the opportunity to eat it as well.

Animal cruelty is never and never should be condoned by civilized peoples.

Man is an omnivore. We eat meat and plants and everything else we can get our dirty little hands on. Tender hearts are not going to change hundreds of thousands of years of evolution.

I do not think they are eating their pets once a year. Now that would be a cause for a sensational headline.

Meh, some people won't eat horsemeat. Some won't eat veal. Some won't eat pork. Some won't eat dog. Where you one of these people? Yeah, me too.

But I don't care about eating habits.

I would care about the treatment of the animals prior to slaughtering them, but I am neither an "animal"-whisperer, nor a very concerned person considering the source of my Wiener Schnitzel's meat. So, I usually eat meat, and don't think about the animal that died to have me eat it. *shrugs*

originally posted by: grainofsand
Meh, wouldn't bother me, only issue I have is the welfare of the dog before and while it is killed, once it's dead it's just protein to me.

Same here - for one, it's better for the animal and secondly, better treated animals mean better tasting food (compare a battery egg to a free range egg to see what I mean)

a reply to: paraphi

it would help if one separated the arguments :

1 - is it ok to eat a dog [ after humane slaughter ] ? IMHO it is - my view is - its all meat

2 - is it abohrent to abuse and mistreat animal - IMHO - yes it is - all animal should be treated humanely - and if they have to be killed - slaughter should be quick and abuse free

but hey - carry on

This might sound morbid but instead of putting down all the stray dogs and cats in America why don't we start exporting them to China. I mean if they can't be adopted and are going to be put down (unfortunately) anyway.

I don't know how much about animal treatment in other countries, but I will I say I abhor it wherever it happens. I hear a lot about how China treats animals but I can't help but wonder if it's actually any better in the US. I'd wager the cruelty is hidden and kept under wraps by mega corporations. Justified by the bottom dollar, loosely defined laws, and loopholes.

Usually I would say that it is up to them what they want to eat, but dogs do have a higher intelligence than most animals and seem to have some level of empathy with us, so slaughtering them like that.... I dont know.

a reply to: WakeUpBeer

Oh definitely, it happens.

Recently, there was an undercover reporter/whistle-blower in the UK who exposed cruelty (beating of animals, not following procedure, unnecessary pain etc) at a small, family run abattoir, so it isn't the sole preserve of the "corporations" either.

Here you go - Link This was a "halal" slaughterhouse though, so perhaps "cultural differences" come into play here? Animal welfare seems to only be of prevalence in the West. Everywhere else, it seems that if you're going to kill an animal for food, you can do what you like to it before hand.

Meanwhile .... in the West ..... how many dogs are killed every year and sent to landfill.

Such a waste! But .... we do it humanely.

The high horse is a little rickety in the West. People in glasshouses and all that.

P

a reply to: Cinrad

Dogs, intelligent, not the one's I've seen !

No more so than a cat or many other mammals though - a cat is as trainable as a dog. Pigs are probably more "intelligent" than dogs, but they taste so yummy, but they too are highly trainable and can relate to humans. In fact, most mammals - to a greater or lesser degree - are intelligent and can empathise, it's just whether you pick up on those cues.

a reply to: stumason

Brutal.. and enraging.

I eat meat and other animal products but I'm of the mind an animal should never have an inclination it's about to die. Unfortunately that's far from reality. Kind of puts me on the fence about whether or not I want to keep eating them. Why do they have to be so delicious?

A friend of mine turned vegan, in part because he read a couple books on the treatment of animals during their lives and at their deaths. It's one of those things I want to keep from coming to mind, ya know?

Just another thing I feel won't change any time soon thanks to big business and bottom dollars. It's like a Sarlacc Pit of greed..

I know I'd happily eat one of my neighbours annoying yappy little dogs...got a cooking pot just his size

originally posted by: johnb
Never understood why anybody gets upset by people any particular type of animal.

You can either eat them all or none or its just hypocrisy

That, exactly.

a reply to: WakeUpBeer

Quite - I like to think the food I buy is made of animals that didn't suffer needlessly, but you can never be 100% certain unless you were there at the time.

That said, in the UK we have the "Red Tractor" labelling scheme, along with other "farm assured" type programmes so you can be reasonably sure that the food was reared and slaughtered to a good standard. I also buy free range were possible, but I realise this is not always so (cost etc).

The best you can do as a person to change the industry is to try and buy food that purports to be from a good source, then those who are not particularly good will suffer financially.

In fact, in the UK, most eggs are now produced to a "free range" standard (although not all outdoors - some are barn reared) because battery farming is so unpopular they don't make money, plus I also think the EU has put minimum standards in place which all but fazed out the old style, true battery farms.

it's their culture, let them have it.
if you don't like it, just don travel there with your dog during the celebrations...

I suggest a boycott of Chinese food until this practice is outlawed, after all if they are happy to eat dog they probably have no reservations about putting it in their takeaways. Won't be a problem for me I've always considered it the worlds most overrated cuisine, lacking in flavour and unsatisfactory in every respect.

Just to be clear....

This is about eating dogs considering the place dogs have in human evolution relationships AND the animal cruelty in China perpetrated against dogs and other animals.

If you think that's OK, then fine. If people must eat dogs (or any animal for that matter) then a modicum of animal welfare is desirable.