This is hard because yes dogs are awesome.
But so are cows, and pigs.
I’m no vegan, but It’s interesting that the revulsion line for so many is dogs rather than fellow land mammals, land creatures, or something more distinct than a mammal you find particularly cute.
I’d argue the moral judgment here largely comes from people who just plain abstain from pointing that same moral judgment to sentient creatures they do eat. A cow or a pig is no less an individual than a dog.
As for me, I am eagerly awaiting lab grown meat becoming more available as an end to our species’ barbarism. Usually all I hear back is disgust at the concept. Give it a chance, for the sake of all the creatures we breed to torture and kill. If we can grow animal protein that tastes the same, that’s a win for everyone.
We bred dogs specifically to love people and to be expressive in an innately human way, so it feels wrong to kill them. Cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, etc. were bred for food. There’s less betrayal if the idea was always to eat them.
Cows are not bred only to supply meat, they supply labor to till fields and provide manure for crops. The dog breeds used for food in those regions are bred specifically for food, no different than current domesticated animals. Its the lack of that understanding and diminishing the work that other domesticated animals do that cause the problem. Hell there are plenty of studies that show pigs are smarter than dogs, we use them for organ transplants and stuff. You can legitamately argue pigs are more innately human than dogs are.
Pigs don’t have expressive faces, built-in emotional understanding of humans, and, most importantly, infinite affection. Horses supplanted cows as farm… workhorses, which severely altered our perception of them in the west. It’s a marketing issue.
I really appreciate your usage of the word “betrayal” here, I think it’s incredibly apt.
but do you think this makes any moral difference? or that it would matter at all to the being having their throat slashed or thrashing in a gas chamber?
What does betrayal have to do with the morality of killing something?
It’s either right or wrong to kill something if you don’t have to for survival.
If you think killing dogs is wrong, then killing cows or pigs should also be wrong.
I don’t think it’s unfair to say there’s a spectrum to this. I’m not going to feel as bad with an ant dying compared to a dog
You’re talking about morality and I’m considering people’s feelings, however convoluted they might be. It’s not a moral issue, it’s marketing.
I made a comment like that to my younger sister when I was just out of high school and you’d think that I had just burned the Bible in front of my father or something.
I’d argue the moral judgment here largely comes from people who just plain abstain from pointing that same moral judgment to sentient creatures they do eat. A cow or a pig is no less an individual than a dog.
so the issue isn’t whether cows or dogs are individuals.
This issue is about that, as people are upset about cruelty to dogs but just put blinders on for cows.
No person anyone would consider sane would advocate on behalf of saving watermelons, as they have no emotions like fear or sense of self-preservation. Most westerners know intimately that dogs do, but we choose not to dwell on the similar plight of cows, mostly because of the long standing tradition of eating cows. Tradition as always is an idiot thing.
So yeah, the issue here does revolve around these creatures being sentient individuals, and our erratic recognition of that among the species we choose to consume.
This issue is about that, as people are upset about cruelty to dogs but just put blinders on for cows.
the distinguishing characteristic isn’t necessarily the individuality of each, and given that you’re right that there is no appreciable difference in that regard, there must be some other factor at play.
Doesn’t taste nearly as good, doesn’t satiate the pallette. And yes I’ve tried all the impossibles and faux stuff multiple times because I like to try new things.
That said, I’m completely for alternative routes to meat, and will give them every opportunity as they mature to break my bad habit. Plant based meat just isn’t an adequate nicotine patch for such things, at least not yet.
it really snaps into view when you think about it as an addiction; which also just so happens to be fueling and unfathomably cruel bundle of industries that is destroying the planet - so the stakes are pretty high here.
I would encourage people to try veganuary this year, it’s growing massively and there’s tons of support.
I hear you. I don’t eat meat, and I haven’t for several years. I still find it extremely tempting sometimes to eat some chicken wings.
The only reason I don’t is because whenever I actually think, “maybe I should just have some,” I get overwhelmed with flashes in my mind visualizing the deaths of the chickens and then I just… can’t.
But if those flashes weren’t there I definitely would’ve caved by now.
While I support the goal of ending dog meat, I think this is approaching it from the wrong side. Don’t attack the supply, attack the demand. All of these dog farmers make their living by selling their product to people who have chosen to buy dog meat. Many of them still want this, and will resort to black markets if it gets banned.
We’re actually on a good path with it right now- they are only able to discuss a ban because it’s fallen out of favor with people. In particular, the younger generations are turning away from it. A marketing campaign against dog meat will face much less resistance than a ban.
I have no sympathy for these farmers or their livelihoods
Yes but it’s pretty much the same industry that farms millions of pigs and chickens here as well 😐
My lack of sympathy extends to most industry farmers and ranchers in the West
same, if your industry is slashing throats and corralling living sentient beings into gas chambers, you can fuck right off.
While “gas chambers” rightfully invokes Nazi imagery, it isn’t necessarily a cruel method of slaughter. If we assume they use nitrogen gas, the animals will fall asleep/pass out without ever knowing that anything is wrong.
Of course, that doesn’t help if your point wasn’t about cruelty but meat as a whole. It also doesn’t help that this is an extremely rare method of slaughter, because profits.
They use carbon dioxide, unfortunately. It’s not a nice way to go. Source: https://viva.org.uk/animals/slaughter-how-animals-are-killed/pig-gassing-in-the-uk/
Also it’s not uncommon to gas livestock to death, I’m not sure where you got that from
When I lived in Incheon, I got on the bus to Seoul in front of a dog meat breeding place whatever you call it. Those sounds of dog misery was a huge reason I left the country. Absolutely brutal and barbaric. Glad to know that’s finally changing.
Well I guess this answers my question of whether there were really that many people still eating dogs. Apparently it’s not as rare as people made it to be.
