In China, at least. Although in recent years, owning a pet dog has become more and more popular in Chinese culture, and animal activists are rising up and attempting to put a stop to the consumption of their four-legged friends. This fight between animal owners and animal eaters has cropped up in the news lately, mainly because of a truck full of over 500 dogs that was driven off of the road by an angry dog owner. To sum up the story, a man driving with his girlfriend saw the truck full of dogs driving, shipment in tow, and ran it off the road. As news of the near-hijacking spread around the nearby areas, animal activists from all over, followed closely by the police, managed to gather together $17,000 which they used to pay off the driver and convince him to turn over his shipment of man's best friends.
This not only caused a major roadblock, but also resulted in the homelessness of 520 dogs. It was a small victory for animal activists, who were able to save these canines from becoming dinner, but also quite the loss as now the rescuers are trying to find homes, food, water, and veterinarian care for a bunch of wild dogs.
Now, living in the Western hemisphere, I find myself instinctively making a disgusted face when I think of people sitting down to hot steaming plate of dog. But, that's because I've owned a dog, thrown a frisbee for a dog, commanded a dog to sit and stay, and also looked into the sad eyes of a dog when I leave the house and he or she doesn't get to come along. Essentially, I have had a domesticated dog as a pet, and yes, it is revolting to think of that pet being eaten. But we must acknowledge the hypocrisy here. People are up in arms over an animal being eaten. Well, breaking news, folks, animals get eaten every day. In our own country. And cute ones too. So, wait, it's okay to eat pigs, cows, and lamb, but not dogs, merely because we've trained them to obey us?
The only reason people are even disgusted by it is because we've domesticated dogs and made them our own. We've named them, and brought them into our homes, and given them their own plush beds, and now they're considered some kind of superior species. Now, before you get all angry and think I'm some kind of dog-hater, think again. Because here's where the hypocrisy really rears its ugly dog-eating head. People probably read that article (link below) about dog delicacies in China and were outraged. And to be fair, it is horrible how the dogs are treated when they are shipped to and fro. They're crammed together in cages, malnourished, and sometimes diseased. But we have that same problem here in the United States. Animals are constantly being mistreated all over the country! In pounds and pet stores, and even in homes.
Now obviously to begin eating dogs in the United States and many other western countries would be strange and would definitely cause an outrage. But that's because a) we've had dogs as pets for centuries, and b) we don't have wild dogs. In China, there are wild dogs. Granted, some pet dogs are actually stolen and sent off to become restaurant fare, but most of them are wild. And what's really bothering people over in China is that this fight over whether or not dogs should be considered a consumable good is that it is so closely linked to the growing class distinction. Rich people are the dog owners and poor people are the dog eaters. Why? Because owning a dog is expensive, and eating a dog is cheaper than eating pork or beef. So, as pointed out in the article, when a man in a Mercedes runs a working-class truck driver off of the road and convinces him to take $17000 ($3000 less than he is owed) to give up his shipment in the name of "animal rights", it strikes more than one chord. So now that truck driver is having trouble finding work due to his last failed attempt at delivery, and the increasingly impoverished lower-class is wondering why people care more about dogs than they do about humans.
I'm not trying to promote a vegetarian lifestyle for everyone in which we stop eating animals altogether. And I'm definintely not trying to put dog on the menu. But I do think it's important to realize that there is a double standard when it comes to rescuing animals from certain danger. We're choosing to focus our attention on only one species, when in reality, animals (humans included) all over the world are being mistreated, abused, and mercilessly killed. It's not that we shouldn't try and save some animals if it means we can't save them all. But if saving one species leads to the hunger and job loss of our own species and leaves other species like cow and sheep to go on being mistreated, are we really doing the right thing?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/chinese-dog-eaters-and-dog-lovers-spar-over-animal-rights/2011/05/20/AGvgmVDH_story_1.html
P.S. There's a slide show of photographs in this article, but some of the photographs are rather...graphic. Nothing you wouldn't see in a normal meat locker, but...just a warning.
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