Support NeoGAF

[Derwind]

I don't particular feel the need to eat dog meat but arguments brought forth about which meats should/shouldn't be consumed entirely should not be out of some sentimentality for the species in question. Many animals serve multiple purpose and the most basic purpose is ultimately consumption, whether its by design(farmed & slaughtered) or by circumstance(consumed by other animals/bugs/microbes).

What I'm most concerned about is the treatment towards the animal and if consumption is by design is it sustainable?

Anything else, whether because the animal is cute or it was bred to do handstands on command mean absolutely nothing to me.

What I don't like about what happens there is that the dogs are being stolen and mistreated.

But outside of this, you have stray dogs that are put down out of inconvenience or in my parents country the butchers poison the excess meat that they throw out with the intention to kill the neighbourhood dogs in the area.

My point being is dogs get killed for petty reasons all the time, so the focused outrage of the act of consumption here doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Thats not to say you have to fight every battle towards the killing of these animals but that killing of dogs is so common, consume them after the fact at least in my mind seems like an effecient use of the animal.

Mind you, I don't like the thought of eating a dog but on the scale of things that I find to be a problem, eating one isn't very high, whereas, theft of a pet and cruel treatment are much, much higher.

 

[Big-E]

It has noting to do with the west, it's meant to attract tourism to the city, it's not this ancient tradition or anything. I mean eating dog meat is, but that festival started in the 90s.
And by the way, most Chinese people I've met are against it and there were quite a few media reports criticizing it.

As for the festival itself, I've been there, I wouldn't know about torture and boiling live dogs, it might happen in some places, I didn't see any of that but I didn't went looking for it.
In any case, I have no problem eating dog meat, though seeing a lot of dead and skinned dogs can be a bit weird even for me and I'm really not squeamish about such things.
Other than that, the dog meat is delicious, the cat meat is awful and the lychee wine they serve there is amazing.


Even on a pure practical level, I can't imagine that being true, at least not on a widespread level.
I mean, do you know anyone that skin cows alive?
They don't do it out of this hate of dogs or whatever, they just treat them like meat animals.

Which is why I say its a fuck you to the west and to Chinese who are sensitive to the issue. They celebrate it knowing it pisses people off which causes controversy. Dog meat is super common in the north east but they don't rub it in and steal dogs off the street to meet their quotas.

 

[Stinkles]

Dear morons, you aren't going to stop a traditional festival with posts on Twitter and Facebook.

Spain will ban bullfighting within a decade. Because it's a relatively progressive democracy and pressure of this kind is effective. It causes people to think about details in detail.

 

[Partition]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfaZeIxHFUM

People should watch the VICE report they did last year on this

 

[CrankyKong]

Someone post a pic of the dog being blow torched plz

 

[delta25]

Unfortunately I can't sigh this, I like to eat other animals.

 

[And_Gignac]

I disagree with this cultural expression. Dogs should be given personhood status imo.

 

[AnathemicOne]

Who would've thought different areas of the world have different cultures? And what the hell is social media gonna do to stop China let alone its citizens?

 

[Chichikov]

Which is why I say its a fuck you to the west and to Chinese who are sensitive to the issue. They celebrate it knowing it pisses people off which causes controversy. Dog meat is super common in the north east but they don't rub it in and steal dogs off the street to meet their quotas.

I don't know, I didn't get the sense that they were trying to rub anything in anyone nose, it just felt like a local food festival.

 

[diggmcbadass]

Not endorsing the dog torture or anything, but doesn't China have some human rights violations we could try fixing with twitter first?

 

[Casimir]

Assuming the dogs are not being eaten out of pure necessity, eating dogs seems so strange because they are so habitable and useful for other means. I feel like you don't have to even get into the "dogs are cute" argument to make a point. You can just say eating dogs is dumb because dogs are domesticated, intelligent enough to serve other purposes, and they don't really pay off in what you get out of raising them. Eating carnivores doesn't make a lot of sense because they themselves are costly to feed.

Every point here is equally applicable to pigs. In certain respects, they are actually better than dogs. I don't see the western world falling over itself to ban pork consumption. It's not really my thing, but I don't see how there is an objective difference between the two. This outrage over eating dogs is just a farcical as Americans being outraged over horses being a food source.

 

[P. Fembot]

I disagree with this cultural expression. Dogs should be given personhood status imo.

Great post.

They are intelligent companion animals, not food.

 

[Gastone]

It's not the eating bit that has people pissed off, it's the theft, torture and skinning alive bit that upsets people. This bullshit festival is more or less directly responsible for that.

 

[Gastone]

Not endorsing the dog torture or anything, but doesn't China have some human rights violations we could try fixing with twitter first?

Nah, man. That's also a cultural thing.

 

[ClayKavalier]

Every point here is equally applicable to pigs. In certain respects, they are actually better than dogs. I don't see the western world falling over itself to ban pork consumption. It's not really my thing, but I don't see how there is an objective difference between the two. This outrage over eating dogs is just a farcical as Americans being outraged over horses being a food source.

Yeah, I think a lot of people don't realize how smart pigs are. Not possible in our current place but my wife and I are planning on getting one as a pet when we can get into a place with a yard.

If anything I'd say they're far more useful to the average family since they're basically living garbage disposals and can help cut down on waste.

 

[Tesseract]

i'll eat meat until i'm forced not to

rat burgers on me, two petans / rattledburger

NO REFUNDS

 

[Lovely Salsa]

But chickens are subjected to the same sorta conditions. Probably even worse...

I definitely hate the thought of someone eating a dog, but it's no worse than any other animal! Just wish the dogs weren't stolen from families.

Dogs are humans best friends

humans are animals too you know. Maybe I want to eat you, why shouldnt I be able to eat you?

 

[CDX]

I eat pigs, cows and other meats too, I also eat chicken and eggs without thought or care, and I'm not going to stop.

Knowing how awful chickens are treated, I would only feel like a huge hypocrite if I tried to tell other
other cultures what animals are acceptable to eat.



Stealing pets is awful though. BUT I have personally seen no evidence thats what is actually happening and is widespread beyond a once or twice occurrence, if even that. I have seen people claiming that on the internet with no evidence to back up those statements.

Skinning dogs alive, I just think it's a completely unpractical practice. I would also need to see some sort of evidence before I believed it was anything close to being a widespread practice.

 

[cashman]

Assuming the dogs are not being eaten out of pure necessity, eating dogs seems so strange because they are so habitable and useful for other means. I feel like you don't have to even get into the "dogs are cute" argument to make a point. You can just say eating dogs is dumb because dogs are domesticated, intelligent enough to serve other purposes, and they don't really pay off in what you get out of raising them. Eating carnivores doesn't make a lot of sense because they themselves are costly to feed.

This is pretty much the exact reason why hindus don't eat beef.

 

[Moff]

Some of you guys really think it's just about people eating dogs? That it has nothing to do with how they're prepared, tortured, and in some cases, stolen from people who have them as pets?

I wouldnt say "nothing", but I am absolutely convinced there wouldn't be a petition for a chinese beef festival, yes. I am certain that it's about dogs is the defining point of this petition. a beef festival would probably raise the same kind of awareness in india? I don't really know about that, but I am certain the cultural aspect of which meat is considered morally eatable is at the core of what this petition is about.

however, if the animals are truly all skinned alive thats absolutely horrible, but that, too. isn't something the west is ignorant of, not just for food but even for furs, so again, pointing the finger at china is very hypocritical and this petiton is 100% based on the cultural aspect of what kind of meat is considered eatable.

 

[Lazyslob]

chinese government aint gonna give a fuck about some petition

 

[RELAYER]

Eating dogs is monstrous behavior. People will excuse anything in the name of multiculturalism.

 

[Falcs]

Dear morons, you aren't going to stop a traditional festival with posts on Twitter and Facebook.

For someone like Ricky Gervais to post stuff like this, it actually does make a difference because of his fame and the millions of people that follow him. It's called awareness.




Moron.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

I'd be willing to bet paper money that at least one of the people who signed this petition to get rid of an event in another country is also one of the vegans who tweeted about animal lives mattering more than black people's lives.

For those who don't know what I'm referring to

http://sistahvegan.com/2015/04/29/r...r-more-than-chicken-or-cows-lives-apparently/

 

[More Fun To Compute]

So you guys are going to start going out on the street to torture dogs to death just to show those vegans how much you hate them?

 

[Dilly]

If the reports about the slaughter of those dogs are accurate, it is not compareable to slaughter in the west at all.

 

[Chichikov]

Eating dogs is monstrous behavior. People will excuse anything in the name of multiculturalism.

How is it so different from eating pigs?

 

[HappyBivouac]

So basically "your culture sucks and we demand you change it."

Eating dogs is no different from eating pigs. It's also pretty tasty. I say this as someone who loves having a dog as a pet.

 

[Palette Swap]

Eating dogs is monstrous behavior. People will excuse anything in the name of multiculturalism.

To be fair, we tolerate repellent shit like intensive poultry or pig farming.

 

[tattooed_dwarf]

It's not the eating bit that has people pissed off, it's the theft, torture and skinning alive bit that upsets people. This bullshit festival is more or less directly responsible for that.

Exactly, people here ignorantly comparing this to us eating pigs and other animals. People fight for better conditions for animals meant for food here all the time, if you really need to eat dogs, you don't need to torture them before killing.

 

[sharkyandgeorge]

I ate it by accident in China once.

Where I honestly don't think it's any different to eating any other animal, one thing I do disagree with, is that around festivals, pet dogs often get stolen to be put on the dinner table

If anyone's interested... similar to pork, a little tougher

 

[KHlover]

I disagree with the practice of stealing and then torturing the dogs before they eat them in this particular festival, that's about it though. Let them eat the dogs, they're animals after all. I can't seem to find a valid point against it.

Dogs aren't in any way endangered.

They're useful when alive? Like that has stopped us from killing and eating all kinds of other animals (goats, lambs -> sheep, cows, chicken, horse etc.)

They're pets? Rabbits also are pretty common pets. Pretty commonly killed and eaten, too.

Man's best friend? Yup, but why should that mean we can't eat them?

As long as they're properly killed I really can't find a reason to not eat dogs that isn't based on my own cultural bias.

 

[Chuckie]

So basically "your culture sucks and we demand you change it."

If the culture is torturing the dogs to death by setting them on fire while alive then yeah, it sucks.

Eating dogs is no different from eating pigs. It's also pretty tasty. I say this as someone who loves having a dog as a pet.

Like it already has been stated many times in this topic, it is not so much about eating dog, but they way they are killed and according to some reports stolen pets.

 

[Usobuko]

Dogs are humans best friends

humans are animals too you know. Maybe I want to eat you, why shouldnt I be able to eat you?

You couldn't because you will be punished by the law and these are made to keep to construct the modern society. When you strip it down to its simplest form, then yes, everyone survive by consuming life forms.

You could still do it btw, just prepare to face the consequences dictated by the law.

 

[reggieandTFE]

Eating dogs isn't the same as eating pigs or chickens. Dogs and human genomes have evolved together over the last 30,000 odd years.

I'm against events like this festival, but I'm also against dogfighting and the constant mistreatment of dogs here in the US by terrible owners. Focusing on the grotesque from the Chinese festival only diminishes all the suffering that dogs endure here.

 

[Acidote]

Spain will ban bullfighting within a decade. Because it's a relatively progressive democracy and pressure of this kind is effective. It causes people to think about details in detail.

Spain doesn't even need to ban bullfighting. We just need our government to stop funding and subsidizing it, because without that money, it wouldn't be profitable and disappear by itself.
Believe it or not, there's not enough public for it. And most of it is dying of old age.

 

[blitzcloud]

Spain will ban bullfighting within a decade. Because it's a relatively progressive democracy and pressure of this kind is effective. It causes people to think about details in detail.

it worked for Catalonia. Don't expect many other places to follow.

And yes, dogs are meat.

The only difference is that people see dogs as pets. But then again you have people with rabbit pets.

The only difference is the feelings we have for them.

 

[Usobuko]

Eating dogs isn't the same as eating pigs or chickens. Dogs and human genomes have evolved together over the last 30,000 odd years.

I'm against events like this festival, but I'm also against dogfighting and the constant mistreatment of dogs here in the US by terrible owners. Focusing on the grotesque from the Chinese festival only diminishes all the suffering that dogs endure here.

I have never consume dog meat in my life and I don't know facts behind your 30,000 years claim.

What I can say is, in relative terms, this past 2 decades of China's prosperity is a drop in a bucket compared the 30k years of 'evolution' you mentioned. Time is needed for any society to adapt to values and morality that may be 'acceptable' in that era.

 

[Chichikov]

Eating dogs isn't the same as eating pigs or chickens. Dogs and human genomes have evolved together over the last 30,000 odd years.

Humans and cows co-evolved as well.

 

[also]

Like it already has been stated many times in this topic, it is not so much about eating dog, but they way they are killed and according to some reports stolen pets.

If eating dog meat isn't a problem why not push for stronger regulation instead of banning the festival?

The petition is just a roundabout way of saying that dog-eating should stop because it doesn't conform to Western views and I bet the reports of cruelty and theft are severely exaggerated. The majority of people will simply oppose this because ''OMG, poor doggies, what are those savages doing.'' And yet they will happily stuff their faces with animals that have been treated just as cruelly.
The only good point in the petition is the health and safety angle and even that is comically exaggerated: ''It is therefore imperative for the government to shut down the “Dog Meat Festival” and prevent the onset of a SARS-like disease and massive deaths. ''

 

[reggieandTFE]

Humans and cows co-evolved as well.

The systems and the norms are completely different.

We evolved with cows so we can eat them and drink milk intended for calves while we evolved with dogs to track and hunt other animals.

 

[Chichikov]

The systems and the norms are completely different.

We evolved with cows so we can eat them and drink milk intended for calves while we evolved with dogs to track and hunt other animals.

People have been eating dog for a long long time.
And I'm not sure I even see the argument here, why is the history of the domestication of dogs (which was quite a brutal process mind you) should matter about the morality of eating them?

 

[meppi]

Someone needs to make a petition to extend the festival by another 2 weeks!

 

[Prime crotch]

Horse meat is considered a delicacy in some places and we also domesticated them. As for the treatment of the dogs themselves, I'm wary of petitions like these cause it paints the chinese as some backwater savages, when it's probably not so cut and dry.

 

[TatteredHat]

Eating dog is no different from eating any other type of animal, though skinning animals alive is an entirely different matter.

 

[Ratrat]

I'm with you.

If you sign this petition but aren't already a PETA-loving vegan, you're a hypocrite.

Agreed.

Yulin is farther to Bangkok than London is from Moscow.
But yeah, that region.



I'm not really educated on the subject, like, at all, but why would anyone do that?
It makes zero sense to not kill the animal before you skin it.

With rabbits, I've heard that it's easier. Something about the skin hardening after death.

 

[Laughing Banana]

Like it already has been stated many times in this topic, it is not so much about eating dog, but they way they are killed and according to some reports stolen pets.

And yet McDonald's chicken burgers are very popular in America

To be perfectly honest, I really think "It's DOGS!" take a much higher precedence than "The way they are killed" for many doing this protest.

 

[John Kowalski]

In my opinion the less animals we eat the better.

 

[Usobuko]

In my opinion the less animals we eat the better.

We should off ourselves from this planet then.

 

[Langdon Alger]

We should off ourselves from this planet then.

Or just not eat animals.