To wonder how eating dog meat is any different to eating any other kind of meat?

[xiaozhu]

Just that, really.

Because dogs are carnivorous it's extremely difficult to farm them in a cost effective manner. The only country that farms dogs is South Korea and the conditions are squalid.

Dogs are not prey animals and so react aggressively to handling/transport in a way that sheep, cattle etc don't as they can be herded. This means that these practices result in much poorer welfare for dogs. The consumption of dogs is not regulated and so their slaughter methods are usually very inhumane, even compared to other species. International guidance exists for the slaughter of livestock animals under the OIE but doesn't apply to dogs.

Because dogs are usually not farmed (and cannot be famed efficiently for a number of practical and economic reasons) consumption of dog meat relies on theft of pets/guard dogs to supply the trade, which is illegal, ethically problematic and can be distressing for owners.

Dogs transmit rabies and a number of people have died from rabies after consuming dog meat. (Again not a problem with other species)

Dog thieves have created significant conflict and violence in countries like Vietnam when they steal people's dogs, leading to some human deaths. In China, dog thieves often kill dogs with an illegal poison called tetramine. Tainted dog meat has then resulted in the death of consumers. These aren't problems that exist with the consumption of other meat.

Because dogs are stolen for the trade (illegal), often cross international borders (illegal without proper rabies certification) and are slaughtered inhumanely (unregulated), and because the sourcing and consumption of dog meat risks human lives. I'd say that eating dog meat poses fairly unique legal, ethical and welfare problems that don't exist for other species.

I don't like dogs (and their intelligence is overstated) but that's not why I wouldn't eat one unless I was starving. It's mainly about the fact that dogs eat any kind of crap. This is a cultural thing - horses are also "man's best friend" but commonly eaten in France. The French are much less sentimental as a society.

Dogs are highly intelligent and social and have co-evolved with humans

I'm veggie, so lots to say about meat-eating in general, but on the specific point, the above sums it up for me. Along with all the more biological discussions about eating carnivores and so on, I think dogs have been an intrinsic part of our development as a civilisation. We have co-evolved with them, moulded them to our uses, guarded our territory and property with them, treated them as family.

To start eating them seems a bit of a betrayal

(I wouldn't slate any other country or culture for eating them though, although I don't think it's the best, most biologically appropriate food source).

The pigs raised for food in the UK and Europe most certainly are fed on meat, those that die in the appalling conditions that most are kept in go directly back into the food chain. We feed the mothers on the carcasses of their children.

But we are far more civilized as we don't eat dogs or cats, so that's good.

It's like the horse meat scandal, omg there's dead horse mixed in with my dead cow, shock horror.

I don't object to horse meat itself Gobblers more the deceit and fraud when it was packaged and sold to us as beef...

Eyebags whales and dolphins are endangered. Cows, pigs and chickens not so much. It isn't hypocritical to object to consuming an at risk species whilst also being willing to eat those that are not at risk of dying out.

But actually, I agree with the OP in some ways. Personally I hate dogs, would be glad if I never saw another one again in my life, but I'd worry about eating one because I'd always heard you're not supposed to eat carnivorous animals (as distinct from carnivorous fish, and omnivorous animals such as pigs). But no idea what the science behind that is, if it's just an old wives tale. If it's bollocks, fair enough.

Dogs are intelligent, rather prone to eating things like their own crap, flesh eaters, have (at least in Europe) had a borderline symbiotic relationship with human beings for many thousands of years, and are capable of forming lasting interactive friendships with us. Some other animals have some of these things, none have all.

Somewhere between eating a person and eating carrion, for me.

Does feel a bit yucky because of the meat- eating part of it. I feel very conflicted about pigs - I love bacon, ham, pork belly etc but pigs are intelligent and are kept in woeful conditions. Often felt if I had a bit of land I would keep a couple of pigs so I would at least know they had a happy snuffley life before they ended up on my plate.

It's purely what we've grown up with. In the UK, we don't eat dogs. We eat cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, etc etc. But not dogs, or cats, or guinea pigs, or spiders, or rats, or silk worms or fried insects - but all of those things are eaten quite happily by many people in different parts of the world.

Our way is just that and no more - our way. Not the right way. Just our way.

Don't think it's bollocks at all Chicken - wasn't the human disease vCJD linked to BSE, which in turn was linked to cows being fed meat with traces of brain/spinal cord from other infected animals.

That's very much human interference though Moomin, feeding animal flesh (of their own species and others) to a non carnivorous animal.

The way dogs and cats are killed in cultures that eat them is insanely cruel.

If they were killed humanely (as in not boiled and skinned while still alive!!)
Raised for food not just picked up of the street and packed tightly into tiny cages to be killed later (housed, looked after, all the basic needs met)

Had no other real purpose in society. As in if we stopped breeding them for meat the species would die out (beef cows etc would die out as their sole purpose is to become our food)

Can't consider ever living in a country where eating dogs and cats is exceptable. I'm also iffy about eating horses for the same reasons (the slaughter is not the most humane method, it's really just a way to get rid of excess horses that we've either bred but can't sell or are injured/old and therefor no longer of use/too expensive to keep if can't be ridden).

As far as I'm concerned people can eat what they like.

I'm more concerned about how it's killed TBH - as Wayward says, I don't mind that they eat dogs, I mind that they boil them alive!

That's what makes people barbaric in my opinion...

Wayward - skinned and boiled alive? Where did you hear that? The Daily Mail?

Sunshine makes some excellent points though, and seems to know what he/she is talking about.

I live in Korea, and people actually very rarely eat dog here. I've only seen two restaurants serving dog and seen dog meat on sale in one market.

I live in Seoul though, I think it's more common in the countryside.

Most of my Korean friends have eaten dog maybe once in their life, normally fed to them by their grandparents in the summer because it's good for 'stamina', a word which has the connotation of both being physically fit and also keeping it up in the bedroom (old lads apparently eat dog for this purpose - also eel, oysters, and these weird fish that look like dicks.)

The conditions they keep the dogs in is disgusting, and they kill them really inhumanely. But I do think it is something that is becoming increasingly uncommon.

Personally, I wouldn't eat it cos I love dogs too much. Everyone I know who has eaten it said it tasted rank anyway.

fairy you realise that lots of animals eat their own poo, including rabbits?

I don't eat any animals so am not a hypocrite, but do think eating dog is even more vile than eating other animals. I think eating pig is nearly as terrible, I think the majority of people have no idea how much pigs suffer as they are taken off to slaughter.

You just shouldn't eat carnivores... the meat tastes rank.

But also culturally we tend not to eat our pets. Though I have eaten horse (once) and regularly eat venison.

The horror I think comes from how they are captured and treated in captivity. However, its no fun on the average intensive farm and abattoir... if we could see how most animals are treated during the process of food production, there would be a lot more lentils eaten in this country.

The argument about dogs being sociable and intelligent doesn't stand up to scrutiny as pigs are more intelligent and more sociable... but we prefer not to think about that :-(

In South Korea the dog meat is said to taste better if there are high levels of adrenaline in the animal at the time of death - tenderises the muscle, apparently. To that end, the dogs are tortured before being killed. Absolutely disgusting.

I agree with everything that Sunshine said. Very well put. Dogs evolved to be our companions/work with us - they are our symbiotic species. Dogs are instinctively drawn to and trust humans. To round up/steal domesticated dogs and then treat them in such a horrific way is repulsive. The life of someone who would do that is worth less to me than the life of an animal.

I also abhor the killing of whole animals just for a tiny bit of them - shark fin, bear bile ducts, other endangered animals used for 'medicine'.

I am disgusted by the way animals are farmed inhumanely and intensively all over the world, including here in the UK (although our animal wlefare standards, whilst low, are better than most countries). I am not a vegetarian, but will only buy free-range or organic meat/poultry. I would like to see much more attention given to slaughter and humane practices therein, and transparency in that industry. I'd pay more for meat that I was confident had been humanely killed as well as humanely raised.

On the topic of eating one's own species, I was always under the impression this was a bad idea. It certainly is for humans. And apparently cows. But there are other animals, even mammals, who do it sometimes. Cats for example have been known to eat their own offspring. Is there no risk there?

Well yes of course gobblers. That was an example as we've seen what can happen there. I don't think the main issue was that cows aren't carnivorous usually. Plus surely human interference and unscrupulous methods can cause problems in the production of any meat, it's just likely to be more risky with carnivores in terms of such diseases.

Crabby I totally agree.

But dogs aren't routinely skinned and boiled alive in China, Korea or anywhere else: that's western media hype aimed at portraying certain people in a bad light (i.e. brutal, inhumane and therefore inferior to us) and it seems like a few posters on this thread have swallowed it. Western abattoirs and intensive farming methods are just as bad as pretty much anywhere else in the world - either we choose to ignore that or we are so taken in by all the marketing bullshit that large meat producers feed us about ethical standards etc. Just look a the horse meat scandal. How can anyone trust anything they say?

I hear what Sunshine is saying about the particular sensitivities of dogs to the way they are treated, but it must be pretty bad for any animal off to the slaughterhouse.

skinned and boiled alive? Where did you hear that? The Daily Mail?

I won't post links here, but there are plenty out there.

If you'd have taken the time to Google it instead of being snarky you'd have found little gems like this -

Methods of slaughter include hanging by the neck, prolonged beatings with pipes and hammers, and electrocution. Often, cats are boiled alive, and dogs are routinely blowtorched to remove their fur and to brown their skin.

Gobblers no, you're wrong, I've worked in the industry and prophylactic use of antibiotics, growth promoters & hormones are banned in the EU. Use in direct treatment is of course licensed, and indeed required, it would be inhumane to not treat disease add it occurs, but routine prophylactic use is banned.