to wonder why we don't eat dogs and cats?

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Why do we eat pigs cows and sheep and various birds, but not domesticated animals like dogs and cats? Who made the conscious decision in history NOT to eat the abundance of animals we keep as pets.

Plus why do we only eat herbivores and not carnivores.

fing has it - it's massively inefficient to eat meat-eaters. and, I believe, they taste pretty bad. but also, if you ever get the chance to see it I highly recommend a Horizon programme about the relationship between people and dogs - and how this has evolved in the last 10,000 years or so. The level of communication between dogs and humans is awesome - and isn't replicated anywhere else. Dogs have evolved specific abilities that are purely for communicating with humans. It's not just dog lovers imagining that dogs are somehow different in how they related to people. they really are. and I suspect that goes quite a long way to explaining why so much of the world doesn;t eat them.

anyone else see "human frog stew"? now that would be a challenge to even the most committed meat eater

Oh FFS! We eat almost everything as it is. Leave the poor bloody pets alone.

how they relate to people. not trying to say they're related to us.

And why not human for that matter? Assuming the human had not been killed on purpose. Why is it wrong to eat human flesh?

Answer - we all draw the line somewhere. Either that or be a vegan.

I had horse steak, we were on a school trip to france orderes Steak et frites, was half way through it when one of the french kids thought to mention did we realise it was horse. We all shrugged and carried on, was ok

parasites probably - and the whole shit eating thing that cat's, dog's (and yes pig's) do.

Personally I thing herbivores waste products are less difficult to deal with therefore they are easier to mass farm. Cats/dogs etc would have to be caged, can bite back, their shit smells disgusting. But the main point is probably that its wasteful to feed an animal meat in order to create (probably less) meat - it doesn't make sense. (In fact ecologically & environmentally eating meat doesn't make sense as it takes more energy/space/water to produce it than eating veggie foods).

Carnivores are eaten in lots of cultures though.

Why stop at cats and dogs?

Has no one else ever wondered about the culinary delight that would be dry fried hamster in hot pepper sauce?

Guinea Pig and wild mushroom risotto?

Oh sorry for the mistake re spiders in Thailan/Cambodia, always hate it when make sweeping generalisations which are wrong.

Have no idea how anyone can eat durian, it smells so frightening.

But this is interesting so thank you.

FWIW i would eat cat and dog if needed.

We had donkey stew in Berlin on a school trip (served at the cheap and nasty hostel we were staying in).

It was tough and chewy, v unpleasant.

Goats another strong tasting nasty meat.

I would definitely eat guinea pig. we used to have a plump short-haired grey one and i often looked at him and thought you'd be a nice meal if we had a famine.

Oh I quite like goat.

My gran used to buy half a goat in the winter and put it in the deep freeze.

STINKS whilst cooking, mind you so does lamb, so I never cook that as the smell of it cooking makes me heave.

There are probably a bunch of other reasons too but I think it is less "we don't eat dog" and more "dogs aren't particularly edible".

The modern meat diet consists of animals we bred to be good for eating and, nowadays, easy to mass farm. We bred the animals we keep as pets to be good as pets. Pets are less likely to provide a satisfactory payoff in terms of tasty meat for upkeep effort. But they do better as working animals/companions than most animals bred for meat.

Similarly on the carnivore thing, we used to eat wild animals that ate other animals, but we've pretty much killed them all off. It would probably be much more expensive to keep a herd of animals that require feeding flesh, so it isn't surprising that we haven't domesticated herds of bears or the like to kill for food.

You would probably get quite a bit of meat off my Cat, i wouldn't personaly eat her i would just have to remeber the waft from the litter box to be put off but i would glady offer her up, she drives me nuts.

Hearding Cats made me chuckle it would be hilarious to watch.

I would love to see someone walk into a Butcher and say 'hmm are these Cats free ranged?'

Does any species eat their own kind?

I would presume we never started eating dogs because the dogs (or rather the wolves they were domisticated from) helped us catch bigger, yummier prey.

Not sure about cats, they are bit puny though, so I guess they just don't have enough meat on them.

Personally i think any animal is fair game, But i don't personally eat animals that eat other animals. IYKWIM!

I have eaten, Ostrich, rabbit, donkey, pidgin and all the usual ones including veil and venison. But none that are meat eaters, just seems yucky to me!

Did I say "human frog stew"? I meant Hunan - as in the province in China. They do a fiercely hot frog stew which is weirdly addictive.

GetOrf, you should try durian if you get the chance, though it is hideously expensive for something you may not love. It's a texture thing and a taste thing. Yes it does smell a bit rich though. You could try a cake made of it (you could get this in Malaysian/Asian restaurants) as that denudes the gaggy smell.

Lol at "throw rover in the pot" I think it all depends where your from and what is normal there but in times of famine needs must... Altho the thought of it is so gross to me...

Suspect the carnivore thing is the answer.

But I would add, why not grey squirrels? I know a few people that do, and they say they are at least as good as rabbit.

(In case you ask, I don't eat them as we have a field covered in crops with lots of very tasty cute fluffy rabbits, but no squirrels.)

Komodo dragons. The adults eat the babies, if given a chance (plus anything else). The babies climb trees to escape.

My father is always willing to try exotic foods and has eaten a range of animals and animal parts, but couldn't face Swedish surströmming (herring fermented to a putrid liquid) - it was on QI a few weeks back - god the smell!!

Anyone tried civet coffee?

They are friends, not food

I think it also has something to do with the use of the animal.

Historically dogs would have guarded our property and livestock and cats would have caught vermin and therefore protected our food stores.

Horses were commonly hunted and eaten around the world until some bright spark decided to try sitting on one and discovered they could get from a to b much faster than on foot.

Anyone tried civet coffee?

Yes, in Indonesia. It was lovely.