"Dog meat is fine, tasty and can warm the body" (Beijing Youth Daily, September 16, 1999).
It's lunch time at E2 Server Time. Just the right moment to speak about dog food.
Where is it legal to eat dog?
Dog eating is legal in China. Dog production is evolving to a large-scale industry. Some farms breed more than 10,000 dogs. Dog meat is more and more popular. The Chinese import St Bernards and cross-breed them with other species.
In South Korea, a law banned sale and consumption of dog meat before the 1988 Seoul Olympics. In practice, you can still find it in restaurants and markets. Dogs are allegedly slaughtered in a very cruel way, by batting the flesh to soften it. Torturing the dog that way produces adrenalin that makes it taste better (thanks stewacide) and it is also said to have aphrodisiac effects; indeed, dog meat areas are often associated with prostitution areas! Some lawmakers propose to legalise it in order to replace this method with electrocution.
Dog eating is also forbidden in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Philippines made it illegal in 1998, but people still eat dog meat and sell dogs on markets.
Other dog-eating countries include Vietnam and Thailand (where it is apparently not very popular). liontamer mentions that dogs are also eaten in Cambodia and Laos, usually a last resort in smaller and poorer villages. In short, you can find dog food in Far East countries, whether it's legal or not.
So, should dog meat be banned?
On the one hand, dogs are animals. If we eat pork or beef, why shouldn't we eat dogs? It's a cultural issue. Besides, Western countries eat horse meat.
On the other hand, dog protectors point out that:
- dogs are often ill-treated in Asia. I already wrote above about some of them are slaughtered in Korea. In other places the rearing or transport methods are objectionable: for example they are transported in very small cages in spite of a hot temperature.
- dogs are very good partners for people, so they should not be considered like other animals. They are better as friends than as food.
Make your own opinion. As for myself, I will certainly try it if I have a chance one day. Disclaimer: I don't have a pet dog at home...
A few sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1097000/1097823.stm
http://38.160.150.33/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1731000/1731437.stm
http://www.animalsasia.org/beInformed/campaigns/caasia001.html
http://www.aapn.org/fooddogs.html
http://compassionatetraveler.org/dogmeattrade.htm