Re Dogs as food animals

[Guest guest]

AAPN's 'food dogs' website graphically illustrates the

horrors of kerbside butchery. Arguably the development

of modern dog farms in China may signal the end of

scenes like these there. Even so, being kept

permanently kennelled, without adequate exercise,

mental stimulation or proper social interaction is a

quite inappropriate way for a dog to live; and this is

as true for a backyard puppy mill in the West as it is

for a squeaky-clean dog farm in Asia. I would add that

St. Bernard's, the breed popularly used as foundation

stock for food-dog breeding in China, were originally

bred to work in a mountain climate and can find higher

temperatures extremely oppressive.

A spokesman from the Beijing Academy of Agricultural

Science is quoted as saying 'We don't understand why

[eating dog] is any different from eating a cow.' It's

a fair comment (and in my view brutality is endemic to

cattle farming - especially dairy farming - the world

over). However, dogs evolved alongside Man as his

concomitant. By their nature they have a special

affinity with us. Dogs are the only animals I know

which habitually seem to prefer their human handlers

to other dogs. They are the only animals which, in a

laboratory, will try to please the vivisector. I

believe humanity has a special responsibility to them.

As to the question of whether the custom of

pre-slaughter torture exists in China, groups

campaigning on behalf of food dogs maintain that it

does, both in the North and in places like Guangdong

and Guangxi. IFAW China confirms this view. The worry

is that with the growth and development of a dog meat

industry, together with the proliferation of Korean

and Guangdong restaurants throughout the country, the

whole practice, instead of dying out, will get into a

new gear.

IFAW suggests however that so far the promotion of dog

eating by the authorities and the business community

in China has met with a fairly lethargic response from

the public. Perhaps, after all, the natural evolution

of ideas and tastes will prevail. LG.

 

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