I’m starting to think this sounds alot like and urban ledgand. Most dogs and cats seem way too small to produce much meat. If this is true, do they raise them on dog and cat farms?
Sure, I’ve eaten dog myself. It’s usually served cold, and tastes like beef but more tender and gamey.
In Korea, it’s called Bo-sheen-tang (health stew) and is, of course, illegal. Also, of course, is it is a very widespread practice here.
Dog meat is defintely being eaten in China, but I really do doubt that they’ll eat toy dogs.
From what I gather from movies and variety shows, it the meat is boiled in the soup. It is considered as “heaty” and is usually eat during the winter months.
Asia is a big place. They eat a lot of stuff we’d consider bizarre, and don’t eat some things we consider common place. Each country is different and within each country there is variation. For example, I’m pretty sure that they don’t eat dog (or most people don’t) in Thailand as there are stray dogs all over the darned place. They are “protected” somehow, maybe because of the Buddhist culture. But in Korea for sure, although they seem to want to try and at least put it under the rug if not eradicate the practice.
I’ve never seen a cite for widespread cat chow, as it were. Although it woudn’t surprise me.
Yes, and to be honest, look at what us Americans eat. We eat chicken and pig, the two dirtiest animals on the planet, they both eat and wallow in their own feces. But damn do they taste good.
“Sewer rat might taste like pumpkin pie, but I’d never know 'cause I wouldn’t eat the filthy motherfucker.”
People eat frogs’ legs, and the average frog (even the kind used for frogs’ legs) is a lot smaller than the average dog!
My understanding (very limited) is that “dog” eaten in Korea is pretty much “puppy”*. Not sure which breeds, or if the consumer particularly cares.
*Think lamb or veal versus mutton or beef. Hopefully someone with more experience could confirm or deny.
It is perfectly legal in many places in Korea. I’ve read many travelogues where the writers told about being served dog in Pyongyang restaurants. Given the totalitarian regime and strict law enforcement, it’s practically unthinkable that the government would allow such restaurants to operate (and cater to tourists, no less) were dog meat illegal.
I’ve visited plenty of farms and agriculture exhibitions where the pigs wallowed in their own feces. However, it’s not like they had much of a choice. The things were in small pens with concrete floors; there wasn’t much room for the pigs to move around, and the urine had no place to drain. I’m skeptical as to whether pigs would wallow in their own feces if they were in larger outdoor pens with a proper mud pit to wallow in. Any pig farmers care to enlighten me?
I ate dog stew on a Chinese cruise liner from Hong Kong to Hainan Island.
A friend saw kittens hanging alive by their back legs in the ‘pet market’ in Guangzhou, China - for food.
A Filipino friend of mine went and got married back in Manila, and told me part of the celebration was to kill and eat the family dog. “It is an honor for the dog.”
My understanding of the situation in China and Vietnam (I am heavily involved in the Australian communities of both cultures) is that it’s not exactly rare, but it’s not common either. The average person in the street there is a little appalled by the concept, much as a Westerner would be (hey, HK is full of pampered little pet dogs), but there is a macho culture (usually comprised of older men) who will eat dog.
The main thing to remember is that the horror stories of Westerners going to a restaurant and asking for X meat and getting dog instead are invariably false. Where dog is served at all it is a delicacy and is expensive. You are more likely to have your dog order substituted with another meat than the other way around.
Totalitarian Regime?
Strict Law Enforcement???
Are you sure you’re talking about the right Korea?
The places I went to had dogs in cages around back. We could hear them barking. I dont know if they were raised there and bred there, or if that was just a recent “shipment”.
Well, he’s talking about North Korea - although I’m surprised that he’s found ‘many’ travelogues from Pyongyang, since it’s not exactly a tourist hotspot.
Pigs and chickens are as clean as any other animal.
Pigs have a reputation for being mucky because they use mud baths to cool down when it’s warm (the mud also removes ticks from the skin when it dries).
However, mud != poop.
In the wild, pigs would roam about in forests (same as chickens) and their waste products wouldn’t collect in a single place. it’s only modern farming methods where animals are cooped up in a small space that forces them to live in their own crap.
I don’t really understand the size issue. Most poultry and game birds are smaller than your average dog, and they provide plenty of meat.
Perhaps you’re not aware, but the Korean peninsula is divided politically into two states, both of which claim to be Korea. One country is a state-capitalist dictatorship, and the other has a less regulated economy with more political democracy. In Western parlance one commonly refers to the two states as “North Korea” and “South Korea” (though those aren’t their proper names) in cases where it is necessary to distinguish between them. One such case is when speaking of laws respecting the consumption of dog meat, since each state has its own jurisdiction.
While I was working in Saudi Arabia about 25 years ago the Filipino cooks at our work camp would feed scraps to the wild desert dogs (salukis) off the back porch of the mess tent.
One evening we enjoyed a particularly tasty stew, and all the dogs were gone.
It took about 6 months to fatten up the next batch, but it was a treat.