Let’s get it out the way dog meat is controversial, if you have issues with it, probably stop reading here.
In our group of 3 expats we have all largely been based in China, have lived in Vietnam, and have spent time in both North, and South Korea. We’ve been exposed to dog meat, which is seen as a delicacy in the above mentioned countries.
I personally love dogs and can completely understand why someone would personally choose not to eat them. Man’s best friend etc. The moral angle though I find not only quite unreasonable, but at times also a tad racist.
In my mind you either eat meat, or you don’t when it comes to the moral aspects of eating animals. It is quite easy to put your line in the sand, meat eater or vegetarian/vegan.
Again as stated I do get the “man’s best friend angle”, but if we go down this rabbit hole, no pun intended you can’t deny that a rabbit is cuter than a dog, and a pig is much smarter.
And this is where I find the racial element comes into play. We battery farm chicken, feed beef to cows and generally treat our farmed animals like crap, yes there has been a moment towards free range, but generally speaking if you are eating meat its from an animal that was not enjoying his last few days of life.
Dog meat therefore where legal (which it is in the above countries) and where it does not involve eating peoples pets (which is generally the case in these countries) should be respected as part of peoples cultures. I have a number of Hindu, Jewish and Muslim friends who don’t throw their toys out of the pram because I eat beef, or pork. Why is it in these cases that the same lefty types can be so multicultural, but want to pick and choose which parts of the culture they accept?
I’ll add one caveat to this and meat eating in general and that is how the animal is killed. In this instance I do not support how dogs are treated at the Yulin Dog Festival in Guangxi province China for example.
But, lets not forget how brutal Halal and Kosher meat is, and no it does get a card because it is “religious”, culture should be given just as much respect as maybe not real man in the sky…