If animals are killed as cruelly as dogs in Korea allegedly are, then I think a little protest is in order. (I know dogs are eaten here, but I can’t verify how they’re killed.) It’s unnecessary, and as others have pointed out, it might be ruining the meat anyway. (The stew that I had was like clonestyle described, thick and spicy, so the quality of the meat wasn’t easy to determine. I remember it as a little rubbery and stringy.)
But concerning the eating of dog or cat in general, I think that many cultures tend not to eat carnivores of any kind. I’m not sure why, but I was once told that certain ducks that eat fish are not as table-worthy as the ducks that eat mostly grains. I can’t think of any carnivorous animals that are commonly eaten by people. I could be wrong, of course. Farmers sometimes feed pigs slop that probably includes meat, but in general we just don’t eat meat-eaters, I think. Not saying we shouldn’t–I couldn’t care less what other people eat, as long as they don’t eat me or mine.
It is pretty expensive, I think. The little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that I went to charged, I think, about $20 or so per person. This was probably 5 or 6 years ago.
Also, many of the dogs are fed pretty badly, another possible cruelty issue. There are some scrawny dogs kept in a cage just down the road from where I live, and in the corner of the cage is a pile of rotting rice and kimchi, obviously table-scraps, which the dogs won’t touch. A couple of other co-workers make a daily trip to give them dog food (which they buy for that purpose; they have no dog of their own) and water.
The co-workers did the same for another dog last year, and became attached to it. When it disappeard, they inquired about its fate, and learned that it had been sold to a restaurant. They immediately tracked it down and found it waiting in a cage. They then ransomed it from the restaurant for the same price that had been paid for it–about $300–and gave it to a farmer who promised them he would’t eat it.
Mrs. Duality is from the Philippines. She says dog tastes like goat.
I’ve eaten goat- it’s very tasty.
lieu wrote
“As a deer hunter, I know it’s best to drop the animal with one shot. Wound him and let him run around soaked in adrenaline for awhile and the meat isn’t nearly as good, not to mention it’s just not fair to the animal.”
Nitpick: after running it’s lactic acid buildup in muscles, not adrenaline soaking, which makes meat not so good.
make me distrust the above source. What the hell is “500% of the animals”?
At any rate, the article above agrees that animals must be killed instantaneously. It’s problem seems to be that animals are put in uncomfortable positions before being killed, sometimes breaking a leg in the process. Even if this is true, I don’t see what the big deal is.
Indeed, we do. I occasionnally eat horse meat… But I don’t know if it’s done in most european countries or only in some of them.
Concerning dogs, it’s obviously a waste of ressources to breed dogs for food (But we usually don’t hesitate to waste ressources in order to obtain a desirable product). However, stray dogs can live on various human scraps and wastes around villages and towns, so they can provide a free, though necessarily limited food source. It certainly made a lot of sense to eat stray dogs in a poor society. Actually, I’m wondering why this custom wasn’t more widespread. Is there any other part of the world where dogs used to be eaten, or still are?
It seems to me the original question hasn’t been clearly answered. Two korean posters said they weren’t aware od dogs being tortured before being killed, but they didn’t state they were positively sure it was never done, either. And there are these sites refering to these beatings, sometimes providing pictures. A poster thinks he remembers a case where the scenes were “recreated”, but there’s no cite. And the fact that in one instance the photos were faked doesn’t prove all pictures are.
I served as an LDS missionary in Korea (Taejon) about ten years ago. In one area that I was in, the elders (men missionaries) in my district lived in a house that was owned by some people who had a dog tied up outside. One day I was over there and noticed that the dog had a bowl with some leftovers in it, including kimchi. I said, in surprise, “They give the dog kimchi?” and one of the elders said, “Well, yeah, they want them to have a little flavor!”