In this thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=1225968
questions are raised about the eating of dogs in China, which raises the question, “What’s wrong with it?” Obviously, for those dopers who think that eating any meat at all is wrong, that’s not an issue, but this debate is geared more to people who don’t have a problem with eating meat. Why is it ok to eat beef, but not dog? I don’t see the problem with it…does anybody?
I think that we see eating dog as wrong because many people in our culture have dogs as pets. I can’t imagine just cooking up Rover one night because there was nothing in the fridge, ya know? The meat is pobably fine, probably tastes like chicken, but it’s just the principle of the thing. How can you eat man’s best friend?
In France, rabbits are common as household pets, and they also appear on the menu at many restaraunts. I think that Americans just are pretty set in their eating habits and many people will give an ‘ew, gross’ type response to any new meat that gets introduced.
This reminds me of the Ally McBeal episode where they served horse at French restaraunt and the guy sued after he found out what it was.
mmmmm…
Cannibals make similar choices. You wouldn’t want to eat your best friend, but you’d have little qualms against eating a total stranger (or even better, a member of a tribe you’re currently at war with).
ITR, IMHO, has hit the nail on the head. After all, a few of my fellow 'merkins were too shy to join me in eathing inago at one of the better restaurants in Ayase.
Some people keep pigs as pets, but I just ate a bacon sourdough burger…someone must have a pet calf, too. I grew up in a Filipino/Hispanic neighborhood full of kids and dogs and chickens and goat and rabbits. The neighbors would have get-togethers every weekend and bbq fresh-killed meat. The kids were off-limits, as were most of the dogs, but not all…sometimes a non-pet was brought in for express bbq purposes. It was obvious to my sisters and I that these were not pets but a part of the food-chain. I never chose to eat a dog, but I choose not to eat most fish----look what they eat!
My pastor once joked about this.
He said in Korea they had fettucini al fido
Cyn wrote:
I should hope so! :eek:
I chalk it up mostly to American cultural superiority. We’ve chosen this little set of animals that you’re allowed to eat and anybody else’s choices are unacceptable. I think in general, Americans are rather close-minded after being raised on the idea that our society is the pinnacle of human endeavor.
I’ve heard that pigs are more intelligent than dogs and can be as loving, but you don’t see many complaints about pork consumption here. Of course, dogs are cuter and fuzzier, but little piglets are damn cute too.
Couple of things:
When the Chinese first came to this country, they were made fun of for eating shrimp and were often referred to as “bug-eaters.” Now shrimp is considered a luxury food, so we can see that what is “acceptable food” is always in flux. With Asians a growing community in America, maybe attitudes will change over time: can you imagine the possibilities?
I had the opportunity to sample dog meat while in China and I can tell you that it was delicious. It’s called “fragrant beef” and was prepared in a nice black bean sauce. I’d bet that if they bothered to keep the ears, tail, jawbones and paws off the plate, you could serve it to most Americans and they wouldn’t notice a thing.
The question of eating Dogs, Cats, and Horses has been addressed at length in anthropologist Marvin Harris’ wonderful book Good to Eat. He reportedly changed the title to ** The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig** because too many people thought it was a cookbook, but I notice that the title is back to Good to Eat on the most recent edition.
Harris is the proponent of a research strategem he calls “Cultural Materialism” that I’m rather fond of. It has the ring of truth as far as I’m concerned, and I quote his research in the last chapter of my own book. A lot of anthropologists don’t agree at all with Harris or those he quotes, and have said so in a variety of platforms.
Nevertheless, Harris addresses the questions of what we’ll eat – or won’t eat – and why, and whether you agree or not the book makes fascinating reading. Besides the question of why Westerners won’t eat their pets, he addresses the eating of bugs and of cannibalism, and the quasi-titular Sacred Cow of India and the forbidden Pig of the Near East.
The short answer he gives about why we don’t eat dogs or cats? Both are carnivores, and eat meat. Although the Aztecs reportedly tried to raise dogs that could live on grain alone, dogs don’t really do well on a vegetarian diet. But it doesn’t male sense to raise a dog on a diet of meat in order to eat it – it’s more efficient to eat the meat you were going to feed the dog yourself. So we don’t eat dogs. You;ll have to read his book to see what he has to say about dog eating in China.
hapaXL said:
I dunno about this. I know it’s nice and superior-feeling, in self-hating sort of way, to bash American attitudes about stuff, but I think you’re barking up the wrong tree (sorry) on this.
I suspect it is much more in line with what other posters have suggested: Americans’ relationships with their pets. You will find that in Asian countries, where dog-eating was considered acceptable, that more young people are keeping dogs as pets, and they have the same attitude toward older generations who eat dogs as Americans do. I suspect some f our Korean Dopers can confirm this, but the attitude there has been changing signifcantly lately, as the populace begins to view dogs more as companions and less as objects of culinary desire.
Hapa, please. This ain’t “dadgummed American cultural superiority”, it’s universal cultural superiority. The English derogation for the French, “frogs”, comes from English disgust at French culinary traditions. The Vikings used to mock Europeans farther south as “turnip eaters”. The list goes on, ad infinitum.
Only one of you triumphalist Americans would lay claim to inventing culinary snobbery. [the preceding was a joke - I have no idea where hapa is from. :D)
Sua
I knew that.
Err… the dogs there ran wild and scavenged? (too easy)