Dog in Vietnam - Upsetting

[Hillingdon]

I was looking online and sadly clicked on a story about a dog in Vietnam.

Little girl had lost her dog and a few days later found her dog at the side of the road having been cooked and was offered for sale!

I really cannot stop thinking about it. i know its only a dog and also some countries and cultures have different views to us but fgs....

And for what it's worth there have been numerous cases of dog theives murdering pet owners and in some cases, bystanders whilst stealing dogs. So whilst it may be hard work for you to have to explain this to an adult, I'm wondering why you're so keen to defend theives and murderers?
I'm saving my sympathy for the innocent lives they destroy - human and dog.

"Cote if you'd bothered do to read any of my posts properly"

You can tell that I have read your posts from the way I have quoted your Straw Man fallacies and other statements.

"your sympathy for the 'poor their' "

Sorry, I have no idea what that means or why it is in quotation marks. It certainly isn't anything I have said.

"cost of living is significantly lower in Vietnam than the UK so pointing out the GDP in absence if this is pretty meaningless"

Let me introduce you to the concept of GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity - i.e. GDP per capita you can compare to your heart's content because it takes into account the country's cost of living. And those figures are: UK $38,450 and Vietnam $5,290.

In other words, even though Vietnam is cheaper than the UK, its citizens are still much MUCH poorer than people in the UK. I have studied economics, worked in a related industry for many years, and would be happy to continue your education at your leisure if you have any remaining doubts about the fact that people in Vietnam are VERY poor.

Anyway, you clearly care a lot about dogs being killed and eaten whereas I... well... just don't, given that we kill and eat a lot of species of animals some of which can indeed be pets, and that I'm perfectly fine with my place in the food chain.

"Vietnam's dognapping gangs sell their prey to abattoirs as black-market meat for roughly $5 to $10 per head. That's good money in a country where toiling for minimum wage rakes in less than $5 a day."

From here.

I am saving my sympathy for the women and children who are trafficked into slavery and prostitution, the people who spend 16 hours a day working in sweatshops in shocking conditions to provide cheap clothes for western markets. Really Sunshine the non-regulation of the dog meat trade is of no consequence to people in Vietnam while the other stuff is going on. A country that systematically abuses human rights and you are worried about dogs!

A country that systematically abuses human rights and you are worried about dogs
indeed!
but thats just par for the course for a 'certain type' of dog lover though isnt it

This is getting a bit repetitious but clearly the point isn't being recognised - dog thieves are not poor yes they sell dogs at $5-10/head and I've seen trucks carrying 3,000 dogs. As you're an economist I'm sure you can do the maths. Even the smaller scale domestic thieves will take 10-40 dogs per night. So the 'feeding their starving families' excuse doesn't really hold water.

Dog thieves are international criminal gangs selling a premium product - so the economic argument is not valid any more than it would be with drugs or arms. Unless you consider that exposing humans to the risk of rabies and cholera from infected dog meat, murdering people to take their dogs, poisoning dogs to catch them (and then selling that poisoned meat to people), is economically justifiable. Even if you can't feel empathy for the girl or the dog in the photo, I'm surprised that anyone would try and defend an industry acting so amorally.

Fortunately my supplies of empathy don't just run to one issue - I'm capable of compassion for people and animals - never realised the two had to be mutually exclusive.