Rather than risk the graphic illustrations I may come across while browsing for my own answers, I thought I’d ask my question in here. Just how many dogs are estimated to be eaten each year, and how on Earth is this activity still going on, when there are so many alternatives available? Why do these people choose to eat an animal that is so highly valued, and appreciated - and not for its meat content - elsewhere in the world?
I’ve no idea how many dogs are eaten in the world, but I’m confused with your line of reasoning.
My WAG is that where people eat dogs, dogs are viewed as food and not companions. You’re asking the question like they would care what other cultures think of their eating habits. To bring up another old parallel, why do we eat cows? It’s an animal that is so highly valued and appreciated - and not for its meat content - elsewhere in the world (India).
In other words, different animals’ roles are different depending on where you are. And where you are, those roles might seem self-evident.
So, by your reasoning, if in some remote part of the world, cannibalising your fellow villagers, once they’d died, was the accepted norm, you’d be perfectly okay with it?
The place you mention that respects cows, does it for a rather silly reason, and not because the cow has any other value than what use it can be put to. I don’t think many Indians have cows as companions do they? And these people who don’t view dogs as companions… do they not have any conception of having a pet, then? Why?
Where did cannibalism come into it? I was talking about animals. By my reasoning, animals have different roles in different parts of the world. Therefore you can’t put a general standard on which are pets and which are food. The answers will be different depending on where you go. Just because one people don’t normally have dogs as pets or companions, it doesn’t mean they don’t keep pets at all.
Because cannibalism is an extreme eating habit. People who view their pets as extended members of their family , might easily view the eating of Fido as akin to cannibalism.
Can I suggest that anyone who eats dog is a primitive, or are there any Straightdope dog eaters around to suggest otherwise?
I see what you mean. But that doesn’t change the fact that one culture’s norms doesn’t necessarily make sense to another. There will always be practices and habits that will be found disgusting or extreme depending on where you come from. “Right” and “wrong” are subjective values.
Why shouldn’t they be? Pigs make great companions too, and are good eatin’ nonetheless.
And there are still quite a few dog eaters in China, Korea and (I believe) Vietnam.
ETA: And a question for you, ivan. Would you ever eat horse meat? What do you think of people who do?
No, you can’t. That’s bullshit. Someone can’t be a primitive based solely on what he eats. My girlfriend once ate dog while visiting her family in the Philippines. It was a very rural part of the country, but not “primitive” by any stretch of the imagination.
Now, if you’re living in a hut in the woods, eating animals that you’ve clubbed to death with your own hands, and attacking anyone who comes near your property with a spear, then you’re a primitive. If you’re adhering to a system of beliefs that subjugates women and oppresses minorities and stones people to death, you’re a primitive even if if it’s a relatively modern country in terms of technology.
But you can’t be a primitive just for eating a certain kind of meat.
But can we say it’s ignorance that leads them to make these decisions? How far should we respect another’s culture, if they don’t respect what we respect? I know if I’d been born ‘there’ as opposed to ‘here’, I wouldn’t be having these thoughts, but why would I not be able to view a dog with a Western, or non dog eating perspective? I could almost understand it, if they ate dogs out of necessity, but that is not the case, is it?
I’d eat dog in a heartbeat, just to see what it tasted like. Same with horse.
I might have known the meat eaters would soon be along, brandishing their clubs! 
Koxinga; I wouldn’t eat a horse myself, although I’ve used the expression often enough. Horses seem as dumb as sheep and cows anyway, so it doesn’t bother me as much as dogs.
Argent; There’s a difference between eating something out of curiosity or because you are starving on the odd occasion. If you ate a forest diet and lived your life around gathering that food, you soon would be nigh on a primitive!
Try and confine yourself to Edinburgh, they might be able to tolerate your eating habits up there, but Wigan’s a bit close to me and my dog, for my liking! 
Why are you not able to view a dog with a dog-eating perspective? If you can’t, then how can you ask the reverse from someone who views dogs as food?
Edit: My point here is that you take for granted that your own worldview is the “natural”, “correct” and “civilized” one. So does everyone else (with theirs). Why is yours the right one?
I don’t see the difference between dogs and other animals that would make a dog unfit for eating. Dogs are smart?* So are pigs. I say, if its nutritious, by all means eat it. If you want to hang out with it, by all means hang out with it. Just that an animal serves one purpose (company, or pulling carts or plows or chasing foxes or herding sheep) doesn’t mean it can’t serve another, such as being food. In the end, the character of an animal, whether its dirty or maybe even has personality, is no criterion to decide whether to eat it or not. Taste and nutritional value are.
I don’t see how on earth dog eating could be brought on by ignorance, as you argue, and how it could be construed as disrespectful of our culture. Do you really think people should change their diets around out of respect to you and your mutt. Do you think that people who are Jewish, Muslim or Hindu generally think its disrespectful of you to eat pork or beef? Would you agree with them if they did think it was disrespectful?
*actually, I’ve known some pretty stupid dogs
I am a victim of circumstance, like everyone else, I suppose. I only began eating meat because my parents were not vegetarians, vegans or whatever. The older I get, the less I enjoy it, but I do still eat meat. Does this disallow me having concerns about what others eat and enjoy?
You’re allowed to have concerns about anything and everything, just like everyone else. And when you state them here, I have the right to question them and offer my own viewpoint. That’s what debating is, yeah?
Your argument has nothing to do with vegetarianism - it is not directed at eating meat per se, just at eating dogs. In my view, the fact that you eat meat does not disallow you from being critical of what others eat. It just makes you a hypocrite.
Thanks…I knew there was a word for it.
Let’s argue numbers then. I’d venture there are far more non dog eaters, who would back me up that eating dog is not necessary to survive, than there are dog eaters who would argue their “right” to continue eating them. Are we all just sentimental fools, or do dogs deserve a more protected place in this world?
typo corrected
Ignorance of how ‘the vast majority of the planet’ perceives them, maybe?
Let’s not bring religious views into the debate!
I own one…but it doesn’t make him less lovable! 