We lived in Beijing for a bit and I took Mandarin language classes. My teacher was at great pains to explain that Northern Chinese people like dogs, keep them as pets and don’t eat them. “It’s those Cantonese people, they’ll eat anything.”
The row of sad dog heads in our local supermarket spoke eloquently that not everyone in Beijing felt the same way …
But I’m really torn on the whole dog eating thing. On the one hand, they are made out of meat and if humanely raised and slaughtered it’s hard to see objection as being anything other than cultural imperialism.
On the other hand, they’re far more useful as companion animals. Humans and dogs have adapted to each other over thousands of years. We’ve become very good at reading each other and working together. It seems like a betrayal to eat them …
Yeah, as much as I love dogs generally, I can’t be justified in getting upset if they’re raised as livestock and treated humanely (as far as livestock go). Stealing pets for food is outrageous, but there’s not a lot of credible evidence to show that’s what’s being done. Beating the dogs (which I’ve heard about, but not from anyone in China, no first hand evidence) is also outrageous and just psychopathic behavior. I don’t yet know with any confidence how the dogs are treated, so I can’t say I’m outraged. I’m reserving judgement.
The way we Americans treat livestock is deplorable most often, and that needs to change as well. I’m not comfortable eating meat of unknown providence, because I don’t know how the animal was treated.
I’m a secular humanist when it comes to morality and ethics, and depending on how you interpret humanistic philosophy, there’s an argument to be made for vegetarianism, and possibly even veganism as the moral and ethical choice. We’re talking about preference utilitarian ethics, and suffering. Bugs don’t really have the capability to feel anything like pain. I don’t feel particularly bad eating them. I believe cows and sheep and other more sentient livestock can be raised in humane ways that allow them to enjoy life, and the meat being the end-product will end up being better simply because they didn’t live stressed out lives in cramped and filthy conditions.
But still, I have the visceral reaction seeing dogs getting butchered up for the table. Mainly because I’ve never met a dog I didn’t relate to in some way. Every cow, goat and ostrich I’ve met was a jerk, so I don’t feel so bad eating them. Goats especially. I had to work on a farm with goats for a few summers, and it was like their favorite thing to do was headbutt me from behind when I least expected. Or attempt to mount me. Or attempt to climb me. Or attempt to eat my clothing, or hair, or fingers. As far as I’m concerned the only good goat is one that’s been spit-roasted, thinly sliced, and a vital component of my delicious gyros.
I can’t agree with you about the goats. We raised some from kids and they were fun. But maybe the fact that we raised them took the jerk out of them? They definitely have more personality than sheep and cows.
That’s probably helpful. Since you raised them from kids, they probably consider you part of the herd etc…
Also, I think mating season had a lot to do with the “spunkiness” and all the goats were pretty “horny” most of the time I was working on the farm. (I refuse to apologize for the punning.)
I really am creeped out by their eyes too. The huge horizontal pupil. I can’t tell which direction they’re actually looking. Almost feels like an uncanny valley effect. I know the horizontal pupils are an adaptation so that they can see a wider field of view and look out for predators. But still… Creepy as all getout to me…
I thought the problem with this festival is how the animals are treated. I cant stomach performing much research on my own… anyone else have hard proof either way?
If we consider that mistreatment in the US, I can understand the outcry for China not do it… that’s how we all learn cultural morals. I dont see what a little finger waving is going to hurt, AND at the same time use it as a lesson for ourselves about differences.
That article is very poorly sourced/cited/attributed.
All the photos are watermarked saying that saynotodogmeat.net wasn’t the source. Only the dog’s name is stated, none of the humans involved are identified. The source for the story isn’t identified either. There is one quote and it is from the unnamed butcher. The article doesn’t say how it procured the story either. There is no author credited for writing it.
This is evidence of less quality than journalism or even eyewitness testimony.
I’m going to reserve judgment about the culture, although the practices of the butcher in this case are stomach-turning.
Saynotodogmeat.net isn’t a good source. While they have photos showing one instance of one dog butcher (Dated December 2014), the specific article doesn’t have any bearing on the Yulin festival.
I need to do independent research on the issue.
First I heard about this was on twitter around Monday or Friday, from Ricky Gervais posting about it, and stirring up an outrage.
He too claims that there’s a ton of abuse and pet theft involved with this festival, but I’ve yet to read any sources he cites. I think I’m just about reaching the point where I’ve desensitized enough to go through the material to at least evaluate it for source quality.
Saynotodogmeat.net is presenting a story with some gruesome photos, and a lot of pathos and the clear objective of emotional impact. But with their nearly complete lack of sourcing, no names (other than Maomao (毛毛) the dog’s name), not even citing the town where this happened, it’s not really possible to tell whether this is a folk tradition only practiced in a few places, whether this is related to the festival at all, or whether this kind of abuse is widespread. We need more details (and not long, graphic descriptions of how the dog was treated. There’s plenty of those.) like names, towns, originators of the reporting, who took the photos, dates, and demographics.
If you just take the photos at face value, that dog was definitely butchered alive. That’s an unacceptable way for a human to treat a sentient being.
“I’ve seen vendors dragging dogs around before smashing their heads with hammers but not killing them, saying this helps keep the meat more fresh,” she said. “As long as this continues, we’ll be back every year.”
-Shan Dai (posting name of a local activist and blogger working on keeping the Chinese government appraised of the situation in the Yulin festival)
The animals are often beaten to death with bamboo poles because of the belief that the adrenalin surging around their bodies adds to the resulting meat's flavour. Campaigners say the dogs are often strays, or abducted from their owners, but officials insist they are bred on farms.
This is better evidence. At least the Independent adheres to journalistic standards.
I suspect that the Chinese activists will sort the problem out to everyone’s satisfaction, with just moral support from outside. People from outside wading in leads to the sort of pointless racist pile-on commenting on the PETA video.
If they were raised as livestock and humanely killed then it’s fine, ditto with cats.
If people were poisoning and/or torturing (???) dogs or if they were stealing pet dogs for the purpose of consumption (???) then fuck those people. Basic stewardship and respect of pet status should cross cultural boundaries, I think.
On a tangential note: I’m also bothered by many breeding programs for pets and livestock. The benefits of heterosis are often ignored so that aesthetics and branding may be preserved.
“I don’t care if she’s three times likelier to get cancer than outbred dogs of the same lineage, look at how cute her smooshed little face is!”
“Hip diswotsia? I just want a big fookin purebred you touchy-feely fruitcake!”
To hell with these people and their racial purity fetishes.
And no one will criticize you for using that standard.
Assume the people butcher and eating the dogs don’t think of dogs as pets.
In that case you’re condemning an act as morally reprehensible when the moral standard you just laid out actually allows it. By your own moral standard the only time eating dogs becomes immoral is according to your specific life experience, claiming other people are acting immorally strikes me as deeply hypocritical.
If someone suggests a boycott and describes something as ‘morally reprehensible’ I generally perceive that as an expression of outrage.
I agree with many others here…I really don’t understand what meat eaters have to be outraged about. Valuing dogs over cows, chickens, goats, etc. is completely arbitrary. It’s not like this kind of cruelty doesn’t happen in Western meat factories. Reminds me of that Southpark episode about saving dolphins and whales while eating cows and chickens. To me the difference is just the West’s Orientalist prejudices and willful ignorance of the inner workings of the meat industry. Kind of pathetic.
Most of us aren’t outraged by the fact that dogs and cats are being eaten. I speak for myself and I think a lot of people here will agree that the part that’s outrageous is that a lot of dog butchers are beating the animal to death or butchering the animal while it’s alive and conscious.
Is it pathetic to be outraged at the barbaric treatment of animals? I do my best to only buy beef that I know was treated well and was slaughtered humanely.
There’s no humane treatment for these poor dogs. Perhaps you should actually read the comments rather than calling us all pathetic for a view most of us aren’t even expressing.
I think you’re the one who’s pathetic here, attempting to defend inhumane treatment of animals.
After giving it some thought–and being well aware of how hypocritical and culturally insensitive it may be–I’m going to go ahead and state, for the record, that anyone who eats dogs or condones eating dogs in any circumstance other than extreme cases of survival in the face of imminent starvation is a fucking savage and deserves to experience the full weight of American cultural imperialism and all the brutality and inanity associated therewith.
