# Legal to eat your dog? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2009, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404 "2009-03-31T08:14:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/21 "2009-03-31T20:35:34Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > You have to burning it first. Ralph Wiggum: “It tastes like … burning” ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/22 "2009-04-01T05:24:07Z")
Only if you yourself are also a dog…it’s a dog-eat-dog world we live in. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/23 "2009-04-01T07:19:41Z")
Personally I much prefer eating pussy. But there ya go ---
**Author:** ![Bluffcityguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ebca7d/32.png) [@Bluffcityguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluffcityguy)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/24 "2009-04-01T10:19:03Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > So you can’t eat a dog but you could kill and eat a coyote or a wolf, which are close enough to a dog to breed with them and produce pups that can have offspring too. > > I don’t know if coyotes are protected, I guess most wolves you couldn’t hunt anyway. > > Guniea Pigs have been kept for meat, like rabbits but that doesn’t seem to be a big market. Rabbit is not bad, considering how cute they are. Again, it’s a question of individual state law (in the US), though as we get into more exotic species there may be Federal laws to consider too (I don’t know, for example, if wolves/coyotes are federally protected, but if they are that might prevent hunting them regardless of what state law allows). But basically, if an animal can legally be hunted in the jurisdiction you’re in (i.e., it’s considered a game animal) I’d suspect it can be legally eaten. I suppose it’s possible that there’s a statute banning the consumption of legally killed game animals (a public health measure enacted because the animal is either contaminated by some environmental toxin, or because consumption of the animal may be a disease vector strikes me as the most likely scenarios), but I’m not not aware of any such laws. Getting back to the rabbit issue for a second, I’m surprised this slipped my mind yesterday. Does anyone remember Michael Moore’s PBS follow up to _Roger and Me_, a 30 minute performance art piece titled _Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint_? One of the little vignettes in that (from which the film took its title) featured a woman in Flint who, in the economic turmoil resulting from General Motors closing the manufacturing plants there, tried to get by selling rabbits she bred herself; she marketed them using a hand-lettered sign reading, “Rabbits for sale, Pets or meat”. IIRC, the film was controversial for showing her killing one of the rabbits (via a blow to the head) on camera and then skinning it for consumption; later in the film ISTR she got arrested for selling rabbits for food. I don’t know if that was in specific violation of a Michigan law forbidding that practice, or if the charge was a more general violation of food safety or licensure requirements. Cheers, bcg ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/25 "2009-04-01T12:52:05Z")
Those laws have got to be some of the least enforceable on the books…seriously, who’s gonna know, unless you’re stupid? ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/26 "2009-04-01T14:15:03Z")
Is the economy getting _that_ bad over there? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/27 "2009-04-01T14:35:43Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > Those laws have got to be some of the least enforceable on the books…seriously, who’s gonna know, unless you’re stupid? Well, the neighbors _might_ notice if you have a new dog every few weeks, especially if you bring home a St. Bernard just before Thanksgiving. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/28 "2009-04-01T15:04:32Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Well, the neighbors _might_ notice if you have a new dog every few weeks, especially if you bring home a St. Bernard just before Thanksgiving. It comes with its own brandy sauce. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/29 "2009-04-01T18:22:08Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > It comes with its own brandy sauce. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/30 "2009-04-02T21:03:53Z")
Several years ago, a local Chinese restaurant got in trouble for planning to serve dog meat. The local inspector appeared and found a dog carcass in their meat refrigerator. They were closed for a few weeks, and had to pay a fine. (But they also lost a whole lot of business after this was in the papers.) Actually, the dog carcass had been provided by a customer – a traditionalist chinese man had rented the restaurant back room for his daughter’s wedding dinner, and provided the dog to be served at that dinner. Supposedly, the inspector had been tipped off by competing restaurants, who had been asked to cook & serve dog, but declined. When they saw that the wedding dinner was scheduled at a competitors restaurant, they informed the inspector. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/31 "2009-04-03T02:54:01Z")
A hoax on the topic: [Did a Korean Soup Company Solicit Animal Shelters for Dogs? | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/critters/edibles/dogsoup.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/32 "2009-04-03T06:00:55Z")
I’m just glad this isn’t one of those threads that have “Need answer quick!” as part of the title. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/33 "2009-04-03T06:56:13Z")
It’s not legal in California. And if you do eat it, the law will be ruff on you. There will be a spot on your record. The law’s bite will be worse than its bark. You will wish you had flea’d the jurisdiction. You will forever after howl at the puns your friends make. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/34 "2009-04-03T12:09:16Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > It’s not legal in California. And if you do eat it, the law will be ruff on you. There will be a spot on your record. The law’s bite will be worse than its bark. You will wish you had flea’d the jurisdiction. You will forever after howl at the puns your friends make. For that, to you I bow. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404/35 "2009-04-03T14:39:34Z")
Ouch. The police really should collar you both. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-to-eat-your-dog/491404.md?page=1)