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Should you pamper your pooch or eat it?
By Joseph Christian (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-08 10:31
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Iam really confused about China's proposed ban on dog meat.
When I talk with my girlfriend or Chinese friends who love dogs, then everyone is all for the ban.
"It's immoral," my girlfriend said, her face twisted in anger. "I will never eat at a restaurant that serves dog meat!"
Then again, when I talk with others they are dead set against a ban.
"It's a traditional meat in China," said a Sinopec employee I know. "I don't eat it that much, but a traditional dish should never be made illegal."
Then I meander down the street and see an old woman walking a dog that is wearing a pink knitted sweater with matching doggy booties. "I made them myself," the old women boasted to her friends as she picked up her football-sized dog to give it a kiss.
There is no way I could ever picture that little granny, no matter how traditional she is, sitting in a restaurant eating dog. Even so, there are plenty of restaurants in Beijing offering dog meat. They are getting customers.
Read through Internet message boards or talk with your Chinese friends and it is clear there is a real debate on the ban in China today. Forget Google, forget about American weapons sales to Taiwan. There is a much bigger topic we all need to think about: Should people consider dogs as their best friend or their best meal?
It's a real brain twister. But I don't think 50 years ago this would have even been a
debate in China. So why now?
The most reasonable explanation for the intensity of this debate is the exponential increase in the number of Chinese families owning dogs as pets. Chinese are now nearly as obsessed with buying a pet dog as they are about buying a new car.
As an American I think my stance on this issue should be pretty clear. In America we consider it barbaric to eat dogs. (Come to think of it, most modern Americans think it's barbaric if you spend more that 10 minutes making a meal, which is why so many stuff their faces with the most civilized food of all ... McDonald's.)
Now is as good a time as any to finally come clean, to make a confession. I am a hypocrite, because I have eaten dog meat.
It wasn't as tasty as I expected it to be, but it wasn't as if images of my childhood dog haunted me as I chewed on my pooch pie, either. Luckily, for me, I have repented for this sin, at least in spirit. After my indulgence of the forbidden meat I imagined writing a letter to Jim Skinner, CEO of McDonald's, asking what I must do to atone for my breach of the American way.
The reply was simple: "In the name of the almighty Ronald go and eat, for the period of 100 days, a Big Mac Super-Sized meal for lunch." It wasn't a pleasant daydream.
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