Ending dog meat — that’s a movement that many animal rights activist groups have been advertising and working on. However, I find this to be the greatest hypocrisy of all time.
Before I get labelled as a dog killer or dog eater, I do not eat dog meat, and have no interest in trying. I, like many others in North America, view dogs are cute pets, and cannot fathom the idea of eating them. I refuse to participate in the dog meat trade, but I also understand that every culture is different, and I can respect that. The same cannot be said of everyone.
First of all, I’d like to point out that there are religions that consider pigs to be holy and sacred, and not to be eaten. But you do not see animal activist groups trying to stop the killing and eating of pigs. Second, there are parts of the world that eat animals or insects that are typically not found in North American culture, but you don’t see animal activist groups trying to stop people from feeding on them. For example, balut is a fertilized developing egg embryo and is a delicacy in many southeast Asia countries, fried cockroach, honey bees, and grasshoppers are consumed in parts of Asia, snakes and turtles and frogs are eaten in various parts of Asia and Africa, and the list can go on and on. So why are dogs targeted? Because they are cute and considered a household pet in North American culture.
Next I’d like to point out the hypocrisy in this. There is a festival called Lychee and Dog Meat Festival (which has also been falsely reported as Yulin Dog Meat festival instead), where dog meat and lychee are consumed. It has drawn lots of attention because of the large amounts of dogs killed and consumed during the festival. I recall one statement I read criticizing this festival stating something along the lines of “having a single festival dedicated to the killing and eating of one specific type of animal is cruelty”. So, um… Thanksgiving anyone? So approximately 1000 dogs consumed during the Lychee and Dog Meat Festival, yet 45 MILLION turkeys consumed during Thanksgiving, and dog eating is cruel but turkey eating is not? Where exactly is the logic in this? Turkey consumption is over 10 thousand times more than dog consumption, but turkey killing isn’t the problem? Am I the only that sees the hypocrisy in this?
Now let’s go into the history of the festival to understand it a bit more. The festival marks the summer solace, and folklore says eating dog meat in summer brings good luck and health, and also wards off disease. Also I’d like to note that it took awhile to find the history of this festival, as most reports on this festival focuses on animal killing and cruelty and doesn’t talk even a little bit about the history of this festival. Which is to say, outsiders who aren’t a part of the culture sees a practice that is foreign to them, and decides that they must stop such practice because it is unfathomable and seems cruel to them, but they don’t even bother to respect this foreign culture enough to understand why such practices exist, because… why? Any culture or practice not familiar to you is not worth your time or effort to understand?
Now the history of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is modeled after a meal shared by the Pilgrims (English colonists) and the Wampanoag people. To the descendants of colonists, commonly referred to as white, Thanksgiving is to celebrate the fall harvest. But to Native Americans, Thanksgiving is nothing to celebrate. In fact, it signifies all the horrors that befell them upon the hands of the colonists — the genocide, theft of their food and their native land, and assault on their own culture.
On one hand, a festival celebrating good health and luck, one the other hand, a festival celebrating the theft of a land and genocide of the people. One is condemned yet the other celebrated without question. Without knowing which festivals they’re referring to, which would you condemn?
