I would like to thank JR Brown for expressing the thoughts I intended to convey, had I the knowledge, and the emotional restraint.
Well, all the better - it’ll take 'em by surprise.
Want an ethical quandary? Come here and observe the local practice. The government does not have dog or cat listed as livestock and therefore not foodstuffs. Yet, there are “boshintang” (“health stew”) restaurants everywhere you look. What makes the stuff healthy, you ask? The local belief is that the incredibly savage beating of the dog, burning off its hair, and then skinning the thing, all while it’s still alive, somehow make the dog meat more potent. Said potency is supposed to transfer to the consumer’s stamina, as in sexual stamina. Of course it’s not true, just like it’s not true that dog meat is a centuries old Korean tradition. It evidently became popular during the Korean War and the folks getting rich off of selling dog meat have just about zero ethical qualms with passing off cat meat as dog meat or with dognapping people’s pets to put on the plate. Nor do they have any qualms with operating restaurants that do not have their meat inspected. After all, the government says it’s not foodstuff so it’s an unregulated industry.
No matter what laws the government here enacts, there’s no way the dogmeat restaurants are going to change their practices. Those practices are the things that drive the consumers to come dine on it. The vicious cruelty is the whole raison d’etre for the industry.
Let me know if you want some links to Korean websites describing the practice, in all its “glory” or news reports in the Korean press about it.
I’d appreciate some more details Monty, but can you avoid any links with overly graphic imagery, unless you feel it’s necessary viewing? Especially around dinner-time!
typo fix
I’d say it’s hard for people to get enough calories out of intestines to make the cleaning worth the effort. I buy my intestines from a butcher, but I gotta say, at a dollar per pound rate, it makes filet mignon look like hot dogs. I realize there are very few inedible parts of an animal, once you’ve made and eaten head cheese you pretty much commit to the fact that there’s not much you won’t eat.
(snip)
You’re welcome. Your gender, while interesting to those in your immediate vicinity, is less so to me, but in the future I’ll try to use the correct pronoun. English really needs a gender neutral pronoun, but whenever I try to use one I feel like it’s an affectation, and always end up guessing, sometimes incorrectly. The JR part of your screen name sounded like “Junior” in my head and threw me.
And I’m serious about thinking about whether there are ethical reasons to avoid eating dog meat. It may be it’s unsportsmanlike conduct due to the long term relationship with canines. If an animal’s great to the nth power grandparent saved your great to the nth power grandparent from a dire wolf it might demonstrate ingratitude to eat it.
You know, that reminds me of an old joke. A traveling salesman visits a farm, and notices a pig with a wooden leg. he asks the farmer about it, and the farmer says, “That pig saved all of our lives. The house caught fire, and the pig broke out of his pen and banged on the door until it opened, then led us all to safety.”
The salesman says, “He was injured in the fire and that’s why he has a wooden leg?” The farmer replies, “No, he came out of the fire uninjured. You wouldn’t want to kill a pig that saved your life, but it just wouldn’t be Easter without ham.”
Well, a 100g (3.5oz) serving of tripe has 94 calories, and a 500kg (1,100 lb) cow yields about 11kg (24lb) of tripe (assuming about a 30% loss from trimming)*, for 10,340 calories, or about as much as 3 kg of wheat. Even if it took one person an entire day to clean and process the intestines, they’d still be 2-3 days ahead, energetically, which, for comparison, is a comparable yield to most premodern farming practices, IIRC.
- Influence of Body Condition Score on By-Product Yield and Value from Cull Beef Cows , J. K. Apple, J. C. Davis, and J. Stephenson, J. Anim. Sci. 1999. 77:2670–2679 - I am continually amazed at the range of journals my institution subscribes to…
And I agree that English could use a gender-neutral pronoun, but “he” ain’t it. 
JRB
Yes, you are.
It’s no different than when I used to have to arrange business lunches and took trouble to make sure pork was never served to Jews or Muslims, nor beef to Hindus. It’s no different than when I went to France and my hosts, knowing I was American, dissuaded a waiter in a restaurant from recommending horsemeat for dinner, and why they asked before serving me snails.
As for eating “pet” animals… I own birds as companions. They are much loved and much affection is exchanged between these birds and the humans of the house. Nonetheless, I still eat chicken, duck, and turkey. However, if someone was coming to dinner who I knew loathed fowl then I would not serve it. This is called being polite and respectful of your guests.
I don’t care if the Chinese eat dog. I may choose not to eat it myself, I may object to ill-treatment of dogs raised for food, but I can’t for the life of me find a reason to change their culinary habits simply because they’re different from mine.
But that isn’t the reason I am questioning their food habits. The cruelty involved in preparing the meat for people to eat just as an aphrodisiac, is my biggest objection to the practice. Eat all the dogs you want, if that is all you are able to get your teeth into, but when there are products like Viagra available, the act seems a little barbaric, or callous, to say the least.
I fear this thread is never going to die because a lot of people persist in FTs. DNFTTs! : p
ETA: Yes, I know this post isn’t helping, but since the topic was at the top again anyway, I figured I’d take advantage of it.
First of all, I don’t know where you get this notion that aphrodisiac effects are the ONLY reason anyone is eating dog.
I also fail to see where the preparation of dog meat is any more cruel than the preparation of any other meat.
Hang on, I’ll type more slowly, shall I ?
I have emotional concerns about all eating of meat. And so should anyone who is a meat-eater. Having no regard for how the meat got on your plate is nothing but willful ignorance, or selfishness, and I’m not sure either are traits we should encourage in society. But , my main rational concern is only about those people who DO eat dog as an aphrodisiac. If one mangy little mutt dies just so someone can have a better sex-life, it is one too many.
Have you read or heard how these animals are treated prior to their slaughter , in order to enhance the properties of the meat? If so, are you denying that the preparation of these ‘health soups’ could be classed as more cruel than the fate of the average slaughtered animal?
It’s not the only reason here but it is the major reason. The secondary reason is “to improve health.” Come to think of it, it’s really just one reason, as put locally: “To improve vigor.” Care to guess what’s meant by vigor?
It is more cruel than eating other meat. Cows, ducks, turkeys, etc. are not ushered into the kitchen to have the following done to them while still alive:
[ul][li]Hair burned off.[/li][li]Viciously beaten at length.[/li][li]Boiled.[/ul][/li]
Those practices are done “to infuse the muscle with adrenaline” as that’s what people believe will “improve their vigor” when they eat the meat.
Yes, I understand that lobsters are dropped into the pot of boiling water; however, I have no idea if they feel pain. It is beyond obvious that not only do the dogs and cats passed off as dog meat feel the pain, but they also are aware of what’s happening to their predecessors to the pot. Oh, and don’t forget that a large number of pet animals are stolen for “health stew.”
No matter what the government does here, the dogmeat industry will continue to operate as it is now, unregulated. Why? Because the consumer wants to improve his vigor and he won’t buy dogs that aren’t beaten bloody while alive. The facts, the science that proves all of the touted benefits to be myth, mean absolutely nothing to the consumer or the purveyor here. Remember, this is the land where an incredibly large number of well-educated people believe in “fan death.”
Before the Korean War, Koreans made fun of Chinese for eating dog. Now, thanks to a brilliant move to repackage the fare as “good for vigor,” plenty of people think it’s as traditional as Hangeul and goes back at least that far. They’re wrong on both counts.
Alright, here’s where I’m getting confused - this thread started with talking about Chinese restaurants being asked not to serve dog during the Olympics… but all the discussions about reasons for eating dog, cruelty to dogs as food, etc. are coming from Korea, a completely different country. If people in Korea are systematically torturing dogs prior to eating them to stiffen limp Korean dicks yes, I’d agree that’s reprehensible, especially since viagra is widely available through both legitimate and illicit sources and it more effective and reliable.
But none of that is addressing why the Chinese eat dog, or how they prepare dog for eating. It’s as if you said “Americans shouldn’t eat beef” and I ask why and you say “Because bullfighting in Mexico is cruel!” Uh… WTF? They’re two different cultures.
No it didn’t.
If they are eating it because they believe (falsely) it provides ‘physical properties’ that enhance their sexuality, it doesn’t matter where they are from. It is Wrong. IMO.
Huh?
This, from someone who, upthread, said:
So…you’re willing to let others do the dirty work, but you have no interest in learning about it yourself?
Cutting up even the most humanely killed animal is a tiring, bloody experience. Preparing my own food - in some cases from the point of having to dispatch it myself - has given me a far greater appreciation for what’s involved, as well as a more realistic view of what eating any meat requires.
Actually, modern slaughterhouses can be pretty fucking cruel. Ideally, of course, the animals are killed as quickly as possible, but when things go wrong you get horrors like live, unconscious animals being disemboweled and skinned. That’s not supposed to to happen, but sometimes it does… Not to mention the treatment prior to the killing blow, including transport long distance with inadequate room, food, and water; panic among animals in new/strange locations leading to injuries and deaths; and prodding of “downer” animals to get up to be slaughtered for profit instead of humanely disposed of. This, despite the fact that treating the animals in a manner that is more humane keeps them calmer and keeps things safer for the humans involved, too - but then, slaughterhouse workers are frequently ill-treated and ill-regarded. Of course, there is a difference between systematic cruelty ( intentionally torture the animal to make the meat taste better) vs. accidental cruelty (the automated killing machine malfunctioned) but just because your steak comes wrapped in cellphone on a white, plastic tray does not mean it is free of cruelty.
But your examples of all this seem to be from Korea - why do the CHINESE eat dog? I’m not disputing that impotent Korean geezers eating tortured dog is reprehensible, but, again, you haven’t produced any evidence that the primary reason the Chinese eat dog (those who eat dog) is the same. Korea and China are two different countries and two different cultures.
Exactly. If I go to a funeral directors to arrange a funeral, I don’t need to be familiar with the ins and outs of the morticians daily duties.
Shall we make it a rite of passage then?
I’m familiar with what goes on in abbatoirs.
Actually, I’ve made one Far Eastern stereotypical comment referring to the practitioners of this reprehensible behaviour, but other than that, I’ve been very unspecific, except in the case of those who eat them for sexual enhancement purposes.
How do the customers tell the difference between tortured dog meat and humanely slaughtered when they can’t even tell the difference between dog and cat?
I’ve eaten dog and it tastes bloody awful even if you DONT know what meat it is.
In my experience you are unlikely to eat dogmeat accidently as a stretcher for other meats because as it has to be raised on meat it tends to be more expensive then the meats that we are used to.
In certain parts of the world I make damn sure that I never eat anything described as Rabbit as its likely to start mewing at you.
Its psychological I know but the thought of eating cat nauseates me to the core though I’ve eaten snake and other reptiles and insects without any quease factor.
For a fair while I couldn’t even look at pork without retching because roast pork has the same smell as burning people.