I thought the breeding of cows was for the quality/quantity of meat? Not in how fast they fetched your slippers. 
I won’t be dining on “Man’s best friend” anytime soon.
We usually don’t eat meat-eaters. It wouldn’t be efficient. You’d have to feed them with more meat than you could get by slaughtering them. On the other hand, the animal we raise are able to eat things we can’t (like grass, acorns, etc…), hence produce essentially meat for free (well…not exactly…apart from the work needed to take care of them, if a pig can be fed with acorns or garbage, and a sheep or goat can find food on poor soils, a cow or a horse need richer lands to graze, where you could grow cereals, for instance, and you would get more food from these cereals than you could get from the cows/horses…That’s why cows and horses where rarely eaten in old times, except when too old or by wealthy people, because they’re useful if they’re used to work, but it’s not very efficient to eat them)
What about eating aquatic meat eaters like tuna and salmon?
If you want to talk about efficiency, we’ll probably be eating pre-digested vegatables with synthetic additives. Or spirillina algae.
Personally I don’t see the fuss in eating any animal as long as it doesn’t kill me or hasn’t suffered too much in the process. Yes, dogs can be cute (heck, I’ve got a family dog myself) but if you get down to it, so are calves and lambs. Just because they can be pets doesn’t necessarly exclude the whole species for consumption.
Yes, I actually have eaten dog… in a traditional Korean soup call boshingtang (which is usually how it is prepared in Korea). How this happened: on one of my first nights in Korea, my boss (Korean) took me out drinking, then decided to play “shock the foreigner” by taking me to a restaurant that specialized in boshingtang. He ordered without telling me what he was ordering. He informed me what we were eating just as I took my first bite. I must admit to a momentary hesitation, but I think I managed to look calm and composed and avoid losing face.
What was it like? The soup was actually quite good. The dog meat was surprisingly fatty, however, and not particularly good-tasting (remember, we had been drinking, so my memory of the taste is a bit fuzzy…). You are supposed to remove the pieces of dog meat from the soup with your chopsticks and dip them in a spicy pepper sauce before you eat them… the pepper sauce was delicious!
I do not know what breed it was (probably “Chin-do-ke,” a traditional Korean breed), nor do I know how the dog was slaughtered. I have never gone out of my way to try traumatised dog versus non-traumatised, so I cannot comment on the difference.
Would I recommend it? Yes, and no… as I said, the soup and the pepper paste were very good, but the dog meat was not. Boshingtang made with chicken or beef would probably be delicious. I may have to see if I can find the recipe on a Korean web site and give it a try sometime…
While I was in the Peace Corps I was at a banquet at a small village and one of the foods was dog. It was well prepared and I ate it. While I was in the Third World, I learned that you eat what they give you. Many times they starved themselves so they could treat a guest as they would like to be treated. I was honored.
It tasted a bit tough and stringy if I remember correctly, but I praised it to high heaven.
TV
From the journals of Lewis and Clark, May 5 1806:
while at dinner an indian fellow verry impertinently threw a poor half starved puppy nearly into my plait by way of derision for our eating dogs and laughed very heartily at his own impertinence; I was so provoked at his insolence that I caught the puppy and th[r]ew it with great violence at him and stru[c]k him in the breast and face, siezed my tomahawk and shewed him by signs if he repeated his insolence I would tommahawk him, the fellow withdrew apparently much mortifyed and I continued my repast on dog without further molestation.
So eating dogs is part of American history too.
I think the factual questions of why (usually) one species but not another have been covered, so off this goes to IMHO.
OK, I’ll admit I thought about sending it to Cafe Society for recipies, but only for a minute!
That’s a horse of a different color, chief. Muslims don’t revere the pig or hold it in any sort of esteem.
On Fish: It does seem strange to me that we don’t (in the USA) prefer to eat terrestrial carnivores, but that we prefer to eat fish that are high on the food chain. Some other cultures don’t seem to make this distinction, at least regarding fish and apparently dog.
On eating dog: I’d love to give it a try, despite the fact that I have a family pet dog. But I would probably be ostracized, even if it is not illegal. IS it legal to eat dog in the US?? By the way, If we ever got really, really hungry, I wouldn’t hesitate to whack the housedog. I’m not one of those people that think a pet dog is a kid. Got too many real kids for that.
On killing and butchering your own meat: I am not much of a hunter, but I dressed out seven deer this year, all shot by others. There is an excess of deer around here, and we know people who like to hunt and want to thin their herd. But there is something to the idea that if you want to eat meat, it is a good idea to have some connection with the source of that meat. I think it is good to realize that this meat came from a living animal, and not to try not to think about it. Kind of a respect thing. Am I making sense? For some reason that I cannot explain, I feel that eating meat while trying to distance yourself from the idea that your meal was once an animal is somehow disrespectful.
Of course a dog is not a child, but that doesn’t mean you can’t respect it’s life. There are many people out there that have a depth of feeling for living things that extends beyond just their own off-spring.
Also, if you think you could kill your own pet then you couldn’t possibly have any respect or love for it. In which case, why have a pet in the first place??
Now that seems a very foolish statement to me.
I grew up on a farm where we raised quality show horses and dogs, and more than once in my life I’ve held one of them for the last time as the Vet gently put them down. If you think this shows a lack of respect or love, you just don’t know what you’re talking about, IMHO!
Out of curiosity, Pixelle, would you slaughter a dog to save yourself or your family from starving?
Ever seen the film ‘Alive’? people go to extreme lengths to survive when faced with starvation. I’d be the first to cook the family pets if we really had to, we’d obviousley have to fetch Granny from the rest home if we were still hungry.
I’ve found that the “my animal is my baby” thing is exclusively a city-folk thing. Talking to people raised on farms, I’ve been told that they have no real psychic break in rasing a calf or piglet from an infant and then selling it to the slaughterhouse a couple years later.
I’m not sure it was the easiest thing to do, but they did it, because they knew they needed to do it.
Eh?? I don’t see the relevance of your statement to the discussion here. I was talking about whether you are capable of killing your pet to eat it, you’re talking about killing an animal to end it’s suffering…two completely different issues.
Narrod, in answer to your question, if I found myself in such a disastrous situation that there were no other options like vegetables, fruits, nuts etc to survive on, then hypothetically, I would have to consider eating a dog (but not my own, we’d die together) But for me, to do that would amount to the same as killing and eating another human being.
But if things were actually that bad that there were no plants around to eat, I doubt if there’d be any dogs either so it’s probably not an issue
Cardinal, if we take what you’re saying as true, it’s fair to say that people raised on farms must be in denial about the slaughter of animals. They don’t find it a palatable thing to do, but they do it anyway for financial reasons.
To my mind there is a lot of arrogance in expressions like “omigod, those [insert people here] actually eat [insert animal here]!”
For me it’s fine to eat whatever you want (as long as it’s not my pet and you’re not making me eat it). I am more concerned about the way these animals are raised, kept, transported and killed. If they are kept nicely, taken good care of and fed adequatley, if they are transported and killed without torturing them, go right ahead and eat fluffy kittens.
I actually do not worry about what kind of animal gets eaten. What I have a problem with is when these “food-dogs” are kept in small cages for their whole (short) lifespan and beaten to death.
While cattle, pigs and horses in Europe are transported all over the place, without food or water for days and arrive more dead than alive, we should not look down on “those Asians” who eat fluffy kittens or little doggies.
Astrodude! I know you said “probably,” and I don’t mean to contradict, but I don’t think the Chindo (sometimes Jindo) is usually eaten. After all, it’s a “designated national treasure!” Then again, this website claims that Koreans will eat any dog, with large yellowish dogs the favorite. (See also photo 7. WARNING: some of the later photos are a bit graphic, and the entire website is clearly against the practice of eating dog.) Chindos are rather large and yellow, but I think it’s more of a large yellow mutt that is preferred. Not sure, but that’s what I’ve heard. I agree that the practice doesn’t seem that common among young Koreans.
I ate it only once, and like TV time, I recall it as being a bit tough and stringy. And contrary to the local folklore, I didn’t notice it doing anything remarkable for my virility.
I really don’t know what you mean. You KNOW they’re in denial? In denial about what?
That the mass ’ breeding-for-slaughter’ of animals is morally wrong.
You did say yourself that you were sure it “wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but they did it”. If you say that, it indicates that you find something about the slaughtering of animals makes you feel uncomfortable. Often farmers feel this too, but in order to continue to slaughter them, they have to put that uncomfortable feeling aside…that’s denial.
It may make someone feel uncomfortable killing an animal because its not very nice but morals don’t really come into that. I would find it hard watching a pig being slaughtered because its quite a gory affair but I think that it is right to do so. What you are talking about pixelle is YOUR belief that it is wrong, I and I assume cardinal, on the other hand beleive it is right to kill and eat animals for food like we have for millenia. Also I know for a fact that a lot of slaughterhouse workers couldn’t give a shit about killing animals basically because if you did you would find it hard to work there. Think mortician or pathologist - if you were grossed out by it you couldn’t do it. I do however agree that mass breeding has gone to far, but there are a lot of mouths to feed in this world and fields of organically grown veg just wont cut the mustard.