Is it legal in the United States to eat a dog or a cat? The person who eats the critter is not sick or weird, he/she might be from a culture where its OK to eat such animals. Can someone go to the pound, get an animal, and eat it? What about horses?
Bcause of the anal retentiveness of western law, the person butchering the animal probably has to be licensed and his facility inspected. I remember in the movie “Roger and Me” when ‘Miss. Cletus’ told Michael Moore that the law went out to her place and is forcing expensive changes on her rabbit butchering business.
But, Miss Cletus was butchering rabbits. Eating a rabbit is acceptable eating in western society. So, to the original question, what is the legality of eating a horse, dog or cat?
Animal shelters (at least here in the DC area) are surprisingly choosy about who they allow to adopt a dog or cat. You can’t get one with the stated intention of butchering and eating it. And if they get a creepy vibe off of you for any reason, the deal is off. (They are reputedly leary about giving animals to Asian immigrants.)
Kind of an amusing story: Back in the 70s, a Herndon, VA Chinese restaurant had a terribly unfair rumor leveled against it: that their dishes contained cat meat. The owner, in response, said exactly the wrong thing to a reporter: “That’s ridiculous! Do you have any idea how little meat there is in a cat?” No, sir, but thanks for raising the question of how you knew!
DC’s Salvadorean community (specifically, those in Mount Pleasant) seems to have a lot of venison on hand. Rumor has it that they hike into Rock Creek Park at night with machetes and hunt the wild deer that wander through there. This is technically illegal, but the deer in Rock Creek Park are such a nuisance to DC residents that the park police don’t vigorously investigate these incidents. Have a pupusa?
Apparently, he didn’t know. Cats, guinea pigs, and rabbits have an extremely high ratio of meat to cost, making them very efficient sources of food. Er, cost being the overhead costs of breeding and raising these animals, not the cost to buy 'em outright.
Of course, you only want to eat animals that are bred for it. Stray and feral animals tend to be skinny and disease-riddled. Domestics tend to be fat.
I don’t know (and can’t find) any relevant U.S. laws on cat meat. I suspect they vary from state to state (for example, Texas a while back was working on banning the production of horse meat for export). I would be surprised if any state allows cats to be raised or used for meat.
Who cares? If you are doing it for your own personal consumption and butchering them in your own backyard, who would ever know? Going to the animal shelter to satisfy your appetite would be cost prohibitive. It would be better to ride around the neighborhood until you found a dog or cat and kill it with a bat. Cats are hard to skin by the way.
I remember when I lived in town and I would get a taste for squirrels and gravy like my granny used to fix. I would get a bag of sunflower seeds and my trusty pellet gun and kill a dozen. It was a bird sanctuary so I know this was not legal. It all took place in my backyard, no one ever knew.
Where I grew up it was culturally acceptable to eat dog and it is a tasty meat.
Many years ago in Alaska, I had a crappy paying job that paid less than survival wages. I was unfortunately known throughout the company I worked for as taking unwanted animals off peoples hands as long as no questions were asked.
I lived in a trailer court and thought I was being very discrete in butchering a dog that had been given to me by a third party, from a lady transferring out of state. It seems someone saw something and called the SPCA.
A skeptical SPCA officer made a visit while dinner was on the BBQ, and inquired about it. I had to dig the plastic bag out with the skin, head and offal and show it to her. Despite my begging to the contrary, she insisted on having the owner identify the animal and my possession of it. I felt horrible for the former owner and did end up losing my job over the matter.
Who are the SPCA? I thought they were an animal cruelty organization. Do they have the power to arrest people for animal abuse.
To BARE, I would of told the SPCA lady to buzz off unless she had a warrant. You stated that it was not illegal in Alaska to eat dog, so she had no right inquiring into your business.
More than likely, it is illegal to torture the animal, but not kill it and eat it.
Her point and I understood it in hindsight, was she didn’t know if I had stolen someone’s pet, kidnapped a stray or had been given the animal. I had no proof that the animal was mine, and I guess in her mind, if I was barbaric enough to eat a dog I was probably lying to her as well. It was an unfortunate situation all around.