Introduction
Apr 1st, 2012 by S B
When I told people I was writing a term paper on the human consumption of dog meat, I nearly always received the same response. “…Oh,” they said, brows furrowed and noses wrinkled. It was easy to picture what they were thinking at that moment:
You don’t eat dogs, you eat chicken or beef or pork!
But puppies are fluffy and cute and love you!
What kind of sick person are you for even thinking about eating your pet?!?
The idea for this paper stemmed from a family trip to the Philippines I took a few years ago. During my time there I was struck by the conditions animals were in. At our resort, a solitary monkey chewed on a wire running through its cage. We would drive past fields full of roosters bred for cockfighting. Perhaps most memorable was the abundance of stray dogs that wandered the streets. The dog pictured in the header was one particularly curious stray. I didn’t notice him until I felt his nose sniffing my flip flop.
A search for information about stray dogs in the Philippines led me to articles about the dog meat trade in Southeast Asia. Why would you eat dog meat? I shuddered. But soon, the devil’s advocate in me crept out: Well, why WOULDN’T you eat dog meat? At that moment I knew I had my research topic.
This website will first give a brief history of dog eating by humans. Next, current views and laws regarding dog eating will be discussed. The benefits and costs to eating dog meat come afterwards, and are followed bywelfare concerns in the dogs. Finally, some suggestions as to how we can improve the welfare in these dogs will be presented.
You can navigate this site by just scrolling down the page. Alternatively, you can read each post by category by looking under the “Categories” menu on the right.
A word of caution: some images and content may be disturbing.