Is eating cats and dogs worse than the French eating rabbits with mustard?

The question in the title opens a veritable minefield and this answer is politically correct 😉😎 - sort of. The answer is muddied very much by the cultural differences in different countries. In some places eating cats and dogs is unacceptable because they are companion animals very often (normally). While, in other countries, eating cats and dogs can be seen as fairly normal. Rabbits can sometimes be pets but rabbits are often eaten because the culture in a particular country allows for it.

The answer often comes down to cultural norms, personal beliefs and societal values. What is acceptable in one country is unacceptable in another or the differences could even be within the same country but in different parts of it. It's a complex topic.

But can there be an absolute answer? Can there be any a universal response to the question? A universal answer would touch on the necessity of eating animals in the first place. There is an argument that we should all be vegetarian or vegan in the modern age both for humane reasons and in terms of climate change (eating cows and cows producing methane).

But going back to the question in the title, it is really referring to the emotional bonds people have with their pets. Rabbits have a lower status than cats and dogs in the human world. Although rabbits can be pets they are often wild animals as well. Rabbits are often shot for the fun of it by farmers. You can't shoot cats and dogs because there are laws against it in developed countries.

And so the answer depends upon the value we place upon the animal although this is inherently incorrect in an absolute sense because every animal in terms of their sentience has the same value. The problems really arise because of the way humans interact with animals. It's about the relationship we have with animals including domestic and wild animals. 

And that relationship varies tremendously across the globe and it is always coloured by human concepts which are often distorted by cultural values sometimes entrenched from thousands of years ago. Ancient values tend to lead to animal cruelty because the values were created at a time when there was a much less sophisticated relationship with animals.

An absolute (unqualified) response to the question might focus on the capacity for suffering - sentience. Animals are sentient beings whether they are rabbits or cats and dogs. When you kill them you cause pain. I say that because most often when cats and dogs are killed in places like the south of China they are brutally killed causing great suffering.

The place on the planet where cats and dogs are most often eaten is in the south of China and therefore you have to attach great suffering with the eating of cats and dogs. On that basis it is highly objectionable and totally unjustifiable.

But in essence you can't separate rabbits and cats and dogs. If you say it's okay to eat rabbits with mustard in France then you should be saying it's okay to eat cats and dogs in the UK but you won't hear people saying that because people like to distort absolute values and colour their values through cultural norms. It is highly muddied. It is not a clear picture.

In a better world, all animals would be treated entirely equally. And in a better world, cats and dogs and rabbits would not be eaten and I would argue that all animals would not be either. That world may arrive one day. Ultimately, the ethics around eating different animals can be complex and depend on cultural context, emotional bonds and individual beliefs. One person's beliefs don't really carry much weight. What I say here is pretty meaningless. Many people would disagree with me.

Many people believe you can't distinguish between eating cats and dogs in the south of China and eating cows in the developed world. It's all animals being killed and eaten. There is a difference however because as mentioned when cows are slaughtered they are slaughtered humanely under strict regulations whereas cats and dogs in south of China are brutally killed in an unregulated manner in a market which is dripping in blood and agony.

But some moral principles can transcend cultural differences especially regarding the capacity for suffering and the rights of sentient beings. One could argue that causing suffering to any sentient being including cats and dogs is morally wrong. The same will apply to rabbits. This is an animal rights philosophy. It should be a universal philosophy. Many philosophers have argued for this. At the moment in the world it is only animal rights activists who argue like this and they are often seen as extremists when arguably they are not. They are just taking an absolute, pure and morally justifiable high ground in this discussion.

There is no universal answer to the question. One day there might be. Please share your views.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

Closure of cat meat restaurant, Vietnam. For an animal advocate this is a great Christmas present.

NEWS AND OPINION. THIS IS AN OP-ED. I VOICE MY OPINION: For an animal advocate like myself and there are many millions of others the news that the Vietnamese restaurant that killed 300 cats a month to make cats soup has closed for good is the best Christmas present they could have. 

This restaurant was a blot on the animal welfare landscape. They drowned 300 cats a month to make cat soup and presumably other cat meat meals. Can you imagine that? Drowning 300 cats a month? Every act an act of gross cruelty multiplied by 300 in a 30 day period which is 10 acts of gross cruelty every day against innocent animals.

And the people who did it had no qualms about it at all. Not an inkling of conscience. Nothing, nada, zero. The brain was dead. Or perhaps I am wrong and they did grow a conscience (see below).

Education

Actually, I think this is about education. I think the owner of this restaurant learned through the Internet and through the Humane Society that stealing people's pets and cruelly killing them and then eating them was immoral, wrong and entirely inhumane. It's about education ultimately. If you want to stop the cat meat trade then you need to educate people.

Pham Quoc Doanh, the restaurant owner tears down the signage on the closure of his cat meat restaurant. Image: Daily Mail.

Internet and sites like this and news media educate

This restaurant has been in the news quite a lot recently and I'm delighted that the news media are picking up on cat meat stories from Asia. I know this is a cultural thing and I know that we have to be sensitive about cultural differences and I try to be. We have to be sensitive and I understand that but when a culture fosters animal cruelty I think it becomes a universal issue and I also think under those circumstances we have a right to criticise.

I believe that anybody anywhere should do their best to stop animal cruelty by anybody anywhere.

This was the Gia Bảo restaurant in Thai Nguyen city, in the country's northeast. It was a profitable enterprise. Where did the cats come from? The Daily Mail says that they were "likely including stolen pets". They were drowned in a bucket one after another the newspaper says. Horrendous. Don't dwell on that thought.

The business was run by a 37-year-old man called Pham Quoc Doanh who took to this horrendous business because she was struggling to feed his family selling "other normal food and drinks". He's the man in the picture above.

He discovered that there was no other restaurant in the area where he lived selling cat meat so he decided on that type of business. No issue in his mind about animal cruelty by the way? And I am sensitive to the fact that he was struggling to survive. That is one aspect of the cat meat business. He had to find a way to feed his family and sometimes we have to give up on principles. 

However, putting criticism aside, he appears to have changed his mind because he reached out to the Humane Society International which has been campaigning for some time to stop the cat meat trade in Vietnam. The Humane Society offered him a one-off grant to change businesses to a grocery store. Perhaps he had seen the negative publicity and experienced falling trade?

He took up the offer and the picture you see on this page is him symbolically tearing down the signage outside his restaurant to begin a new business and a new way of life.

He said that he became upset with the cat meat business. These are his words:

"For a while now I have felt a genuine desire to leave the cruel cat meat business and switch to something else as soon as possible. When I think of all the thousands of cats I've slaughtered and served up here over the years, it's upsetting."

He added: 'Cat theft is so common in Vietnam that I know many of the cats sold here were someone's loved family companion, and I feel very sorry about that.'

Well, those words warm my heart in one way - his change of heart but he has committed horrendous crimes for a long time. And my eternal thanks to the Humane Society International which is doing such great work. It must have been a real struggle to encourage this man to do, what I would regard to be, the right thing.

The Daily Mail says that about 1 million cats are killed annually for their meat in Vietnam. I think you'll find that about 10 times that number is killed in China for the same purpose.

Vietnamese no longer believe in the cat meat business

Remarkably, the newspaper tells us that 71% of Vietnamese people living in Vietnam are in favour of a ban of cat meat. So perhaps his business was beginning to lose trade anyway. He found a way out.

We know that many domestic animals i.e. people's pets including stray cats are stolen for the cat meat trade. The same, by the way, applies to dogs in China and other Asian countries.

Education about superstitions

And you might know this but you might not: people who eat cat meat believe that it carries health benefits such as alleviating arthritis or that it has aphrodisiac properties. Sadly, I have to say that no science supports these views. It is all superstition; a superstition which results in mass cruelty against millions of companion animals. It is simply intolerable to any decent-minded person.

Massive amount of theft

The newspaper also tells us that 87% of people in Vietnam have had their pets stolen for the cat meat business or know of somebody who's pet was stolen.

That's another topic: the theft of domestic cats. The cat meat business is not only causing mass animal cruelty but mass criminality. Clearly nobody has been prosecuted for theft even though it happens up to a million times a year. This points to a lack of enforcement of criminal legislation in Vietnam because theft must be a crime in Vietnam. It begs the question as to whether animal cruelty is a crime in Vietnam. I would have thought that it was but once again there is a lack of enforcement.

The cats that were at the restaurant have been rescued. They were traumatised and they have been vaccinated and checked over for health issues and treated by veterinarians after which they will be put up for adoption and rehomed.

The companion animals and engagement programme manager of Humane Society International in Vietnam said:

"We are thrilled to be closing down our first cat meat trade business in Viet Nam, and hope it will be the first of many as more people like Mr. Doanh turn away from this cruel trade."

A big pat on the back to this man or woman. Let's hope that this cat meat business closure becomes a catalyst for similar events across Vietnam and in the wider region.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Animal Armageddon in China when 1000 cats were destined to be slaughtered and sold as pork or mutton

NEWS AND OPINION: I have used the phrase "animal Armageddon" for a good reason because that is what it looks like to me, an outsider, looking in at both the cat and dog meat market in China. In this story - and it is not exceptional - we have Chinese police aided by animal activists rescuing about 1,000 cats from a truck en route to a slaughterhouse (reports CNN).

Image in public domain.

If the slaughter of these cats had taken place - and it is likely that some were feral/stray and some were domestic cats (pets) - their meat would have been marketed as pork and/or mutton in order to maximise the profit margins that these unscrupulous traders hoped to have achieved in this obscene business.

There appears to be a massive amount of illicit trade in cats and dogs for their meat and fur in China. There is simply no way to control or monitor it properly particularly as there are no general animal welfare laws in China. There simply isn't. There's no desire or motivation to protect animals in China in a general sense by the local authorities. 

This rescue is probably an exception and thanks to animal activists. They are brave and committed. This is a fairly new and welcome trend by the way. For many years there was no concern for these animals.

After a tipoff by the activists, a lorry containing 1,000 cats was intercepted by the police from Zhangjiagang, in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu.

The animals were destined to be taken south which is the area where, to my knowledge, most cat and dog meat markets are situated. There'd be slaughtered in the south to be served up on skewers as pork and lamb as well as in sausages.

The rescued cats have been taken to a nearby shelter. It is estimated that the fraud would have netted as much as $20,000 for the unscrupulous traders.

We don't know if any arrests have been made. The activists first noticed nailed wooden boxes with many cats inside near a cemetery. The activists then patrolled the streets for several days and noticed that a truck arrived to ferry the cats to a slaughterhouse. They intervened and called the police.

An animal activist in China said that the traders in cat meat can sell a pound of cat meat for around four dollars by passing them offers pork or mutton.

The seizure of trucks by animal activists destined for the South in the cat and dog meat markets is not uncommon. You will see videos and pictures online of brave animal activists stopping and offloading trucks carrying a large number of cats or dogs in rusty old crates or boxes. The animals are rescued but the illicit trade continues in Guangdong, a southern Chinese province, and, to the best of my knowledge, the home of the cat and dog meat market.

There is a complete lack of will by the Chinese government to do anything about the obscene and barbaric dog and cat meat markets in the south. They are left alone by the authorities because they are regarded as a cultural phenomenon and not to be disturbed as I understand the situation. President Xi Jinping supports this animal cruelty. 

There is no recognition by the Chinese authorities of the cruelty that occurs in these marketplaces. It appears to be incidental and of no importance.

For people who support the cat and dog meat markets in China because they don't see any difference in these meat markets to the abattoirs and slaughterhouses in the West, I would like to inform them that cats and dogs are not killed under regulated conditions, relatively humanely, but there are simply bludgeoned to death or thrust into boiling water alive. They are skinned alive. The whole thing is something out of Dante's Inferno. It is remarkable that it still happens today in a country which has the second largest economy in the world.

I have always stated that the time has come for international intervention to stop this in China. China will argue that they should be left alone to do as they please because it's an internal matter. I disagree because when animal cruelty is on this scale, it becomes an international problem. The world cannot just look on and rub their hands and say it looks horrible. I want to see America and other countries adopt sanctions against China until they introduce animal welfare laws of a high quality and enforce those laws while simultaneously shutting down all the cat and dog meat markets and cat and dog fur trade in China. The whole lot should stop ASAP.

To animal advocates, and anyone with an ounce of sensitivity, the dog and cat meat markets of China are horrendous and obscene places which should have been banned decades if not centuries ago.

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P.S. please forgive any typos. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Tomohon Extreme Market has stopped selling cat and dog meat. It is hell on earth for animals

NEWS AND VIEWS: The Tomohon Extreme Market on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi may be the most hellish place on planet Earth for dogs, cats and other animals. It reminds me of other Asian animal wet markets where the animals are brutally killed. In this instance, there were reports that animals were bludgeoned and blowtorched to death. That is, indeed, extreme. It is extreme violence and cruelty of the most heinous and obscene kind. But I will tell you this: it is not that unusual in some Asian countries such as Vietnam, and China.

Members of Humane Society International transport a cage containing dogs from a slaughterhouse in Tomohon, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Friday.

 

(Mohammad Taufan / Associated Press)

I hate saying it but I must say it over and over again: the culture in Asia vis-à-vis companion animals can be utterly uncivilised. I must not generalise because there are some really beautiful people in Asian countries who love animals and care for them and rescue them.

But if we do generalise then the general culture is very poor indeed concerning animal welfare and that clearly is the case in the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. This cannot be denied.

That is why the headline news is extremely welcome for people like me and other animal advocates, particularly those animal advocates with a much higher profile than me such as the celebrities Cameron Diaz, Simon Cowell and Ricky Gervais who have signed a letter calling on Indonesian president Joko Widido to ban the cat and dog meat trade in Indonesia.

I don't know the Tomohon Extreme Market except that there is extreme violence at it but I suspect that other animals are slaughtered there or by suppliers. This story is about cats and dogs. What about the other animals.

The mayor of the district concerned has, we are told, decided to ban the selling of cat and dog meat at this marketplace. I don't know how profound a change that will make re: animal welfare because does it mean that all animals will be protected for the future? I don't know. It is a step in the right direction however.

The new policy will make the Tomohon market the first market in Indonesia to stop selling cat and dog meat according to Humane Society International.

A Sky News report on the market in 2020 following the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic found carcasses of dogs, bats, snakes and other animals at the market in unsanitary conditions. That wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

I suspect that the Covid-19 pandemic had something to do with this change in policy because Covid either started in the Wuhan research laboratory or in the Wuhan wet market where similar animal cruelty took place. The Chinese have cleaned up their wet markets they say in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But in China and I would argue in Indonesia, the law is badly enforced. We don't know whether the banning of the sale of cat and dog meat in the Tomohon market is pursuant to a change in legislation or whether it is simply a declaration by the mayor. I should like to know how well this change in policy is going to be enforced.

RELATED: Indonesia - cat supersition. Superstition about the medicinal benefits of cat meat is a reason why they are slaughtered. Mass re-education is desperately needed.

There is a YouTube video on the Internet about the extreme Tomohon market and I'm not going to show it here but I can say that there is a warning against it which says that "this video depicts graphic scenes that are hard to take in. If you feel uncomfortable, please stop watching". That gives you a clue as to how bad it is. And it makes me wonder how Indonesians can behave like this towards animals. They must be completely desensitised to the concept that animals are sentient beings.

The only way you can be this cruel to animals is to regard them as objects and what I mean is inanimate objects such as televisions and armchairs. You cannot believe that they are sentient beings with the capability to feel pain if you treat them this badly and put them through human hell.

There is a picture on the Los Angeles Times website of members of Humane Society International transporting a cage containing dogs from a slaughterhouse at the Tomohon market. It is on this page.

The newspaper also tells me that on Friday, 21 July 2023, the authorities announced an end to the cat and dog meat slaughter at this market. They appear to correct another report by saying that the "permanent end of the slaughter and trade was announced Friday by the regional secretary of the city of Tomohon, Edwin Roring". The Humane Society International said that they would rescue the remaining live dogs and cats from the slaughterhouse suppliers and transport them to sanctuaries.

The authorities believe that if they stop selling cat and dog meat at this market it will reduce "people's interest in consuming dog and cat meat in Tomohon".

You wonder whether that will work. The cat and dog meat is a deep cultural habit. Simply stopping its availability in one marketplace won't stop the habit in my view. And I believe that the reason behind it is not animal welfare but to prevent zoonotic diseases being transmitted from distorted animals to people.

Other welfare groups have called the treatment of the animals at the market brutally cruel and like "walking through hell".

In the letter I refer to above by the celebrities, they stated: "These animals, many of them stolen pets, are subjected to crude and brutal methods of capture, transport and slaughter, and the immense suffering and fear they must endure is heartbreaking and absolutely shocking."

North Sulawesi province is home to more than 2.6 million people. Most of them are Christian in what is a mostly Muslim archipelago nation. That interest me. Clearly, Christianity which in its pure sense would abhor this kind of animal cruelty, is no deterrent to Indonesians committing these extreme acts of cruelty against animals.

Thousands of dogs and cats are slaughtered weekly in North Sulawesi and I'm sure that the closure of the Tomohon market will not stop the brutality across the area. It will simply reduce it.

One person involved with the mass slaughter of cats and dogs for the market said that he is disappointed but will continue to supply the market with pork. The cruelty will continue with different animals. 

As I said, the habits will continue and I'm not that optimistic for the long term but this is good news nonetheless because it is the beginning hopefully of the end of the cat and dog meat market in Indonesia.

It will, though, take a very long time to eradicate it completely. There are also changes afoot in Vietnam along similar lines. I think it is because there's been a lot of pressure from the West through social media against this animal cruelty. These countries want to be perceived by developed countries as civilised societies. You cannot be regarded as civilised if you treat animals that appallingly.

Older generation in Vietnam FALSELY believe that eating cat and dog meat has SPECIAL health benefits

OPINION: It is my understanding that the Vietnamese administration want to stop the eating of cat and dog meat in their country. They want the country to be more civilised and for the international community to regard Vietnam as more civilised. They want Hanoi the capital to be a dog and cat meat-free zone. A good starting point for the rest of the country.

Dogs transported to dog meat market for slaughter and sale. Horrendous isn't it. Just bloody horrendous. Image: tuoitre.vn

Eating dog and cat meat holds back the country as they are eating people's pets and they kill them brutally. It is genuinely uncivilised as these animals are vulnerable and in a civilised society the vulnerable are looked after.

The problem is that the older generation firmly believe that eating cat and dog meat is particularly good at helping them to keep healthy. That's the culture and tradition but it is entirely incorrect. Cat and dog meat is no different to any other in terms of health. The younger generation, Gen Z etc are more switched on about the true nature of cat and dog meat and are more likely to see this cultural tradition as objectionable.

So, the problem is about ignorance due to a belief that is a 1000 years old. The solution must be education of the elderly masses and as soon as possible.

The Vietnam News says this:

It is said that dog meat helps build strong bones, healthy kidneys and increase muscle strength. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to ban dog meat slaughtering and trading immediately as many people, particularly in rural areas, still think like this.

I am sure they are correct. Shame the belief is entirely incorrect. And a great sadness to me that these false and ancient beliefs founded on superstition have caused so much horrible animal cruelty and extreme pain. 

Shame on them all who do this to dogs and cats. Utter ignorance. Educate them as a matter of urgency please. 

Chinese call Western food "White People Food" (dull) but 27% of Chinese in China ate wild animals before Covid

The South China Morning Post says that Chinese citizens think that European food is bland and boring to put it mildly. They probably think it's even worse than that and they call it "white people food". They are referring to salads, boiled eggs, chicken breast et cetera. Healthy food. I've just written about Novak Djokovic's diet which is super-healthy as a refinement upon the healthy European diet.

But the Chinese disgust of healthy European food has resulted in some quite extraordinary criticisms. Clearly, the Chinese living in China like their food to be very spicy and super tasty. But they don't mind if it is unhealthy or if its production was obscenely cruel.

White People Food as per China. They hate the stuff! Image: South China Morning Post.

"The point of the white people’s meal is to learn what it feels like to be dead, but I’ve taken two bites and it was so bad it made me realise how alive I am,” wrote one poster who tried a serving of plain crackers, cheese and ham.

Ah, the intoxicating white people’s meal,” wrote another sarcastically, posting a photo of sliced tomatoes and a banana.

You get the drift. They are being sarcastic about European healthy food. And that's the point. It is healthy. Some Chinese think that there is no point in being healthy and living longer if you're so miserable eating such boring food 😎.

Word of the week is "white people food", a recent trend explained by Zilan. It's inspired by the lunches of white people that Chinese people have observed in real life or in the media, with three characteristics: simple ingredients, simple preparations, and an unappetizing taste. - Manya Koetse of What's on Weibo.

But I would like to present a counterargument. Think of the wet food markets in China where Covid-19 ostensibly started or was it the Wuhan Institute of Virology when they were messing around with biowarfare for the military (coronavirus from bats found in mineshaft)?

In Chinese wet food markets, they slaughter wild animals in an unregulated way (hack them to bits). Perhaps that has changed since SARS and Covid-19. But these traditional habits run deep. Eating pangolin scales for example comes to mind. They are pretty well exterminating the pangolin entirely on the planet because of their fascination with the scales which they superstitiously believe brings them health benefits (entirely unsupported by science).

Pangolins are being poached to extinction to supply INEFFECTIVE traditional Chinese medicine

What about cat and dog meat? Both horrendously brutal and obscene habits which includes the barbaric killing of dogs and cats. Okay, apparently it is only a small proportion Chinese in China who eat cat and dog meat. Most of them in the south of the country.

But then again, many millions of dogs and cats are killed for this market. So, it is not a small business. In fact, it is probably very big business and these often-domestic animals are also eaten because of superstitious reasons.

No doubt they spice up the meat (the flesh) but do you think that Europeans have a greater right to criticise this Chinese diet then they have of our diet? I think we do. I'm not saying that the chicken in a chicken salad has been raised and looked after well on an intensive farm. They haven't. Europeans have their way with livestock and it is unpleasant but nothing matches the hell of the cat and dog meat markets.

At least, ostensibly, chickens and other livestock are killed under regulated conditions in abattoirs with the intention of inflicting minimal pain. But in China in the dog and cat meat market they have no conception of pain or the sentience of the animals that they brutally kill. It doesn't enter their head. If they did, they wouldn't do it.

So, relatively speaking, boring European salads take the moral high ground compared to the Chinese dog meat dish which originates in hell on earth for the dogs. The dog meat market is managed and administered by devils. Devils on Earth but not in hell.

Note: the 27% statistic comes from a study: Attitudes towards Wildlife Consumption inside and outside Hubei Province, China, in Relation to the SARS and COVID-19 - https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10745-020-00199-5

One of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's favourite meals was dog meat

Just for the record the former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il ordered a takeaway dog meat meal from Sunshine Fragrant Meat during his stay in Guangzhou in January 2006. I think it fair to presume that dog meat was one of his favorite meals. Kim Jong-il was the current leader's father. I wonder if he inherited his father's taste for dog meat?

Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il ordered a takeaway dog meat meal from Sunshine Fragrant Meat during his stay in Guangzhou in January 2006. Image in the public domain.

He stayed in that part of China (the south) where dog and cat meat is popular. It is unsurprising that the little dictator who liked to murder high ranking officials with whom he disagreed, liked to eat dog meat even if it might have been someone's pet.

Animal welfare law being prepared for 24 years

On this topic, by the way, I have just read online that a social law researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has been drafting an animal welfare law specifically to protect domestic animals including pets in China for the past 24 years! Nothing has come of it. This mythical, proposed law would ban the selling and eating of dog and cat meat. Fat chance!

The draft law contains 181 clauses and the final draft of this law was available in 2010! Nothing has happened. Clearly there are too many objectors to it such as restaurant owners who would have to close down their business because they rely on dogs - I should say dead dogs - for the supply of meat.

It's rather strange that in 2010 this mythical document was out for consultation! It was clearly buried comprehensively. There is no appetite (please excuse the crude pun) in China to enact any kind of animal welfare law to protect dogs and cats and other domestic animals in that country. 

This is a reflection on their attitude and their attitude is rooted in 1000–2000-year-old traditions; a time when humans were even more cruel towards animals than they are today.

Source: Me and scmp.com

Boycott China by not buying their cheap products any more to make a statement about the Yulin dog meat 'festival'

I agree with Phaedra on Twitter. With the Yulin dog meat festival around the corner (June 21st), today is a good day for all citizens in the West to boycott Chinese products manufactured in China. Billions of their products are bought by citizens of the West to support China. 

Sickening and abject cruelty. We must not accept it. We should make a stand and boycott Chinese goods. Image: Twitter.

I don't mind normal business but if people in the West want to make a statement about the objectionably cruel and barbaric dog meat 'festival' then they should stop buying Chinese products. That means checking whether it has been made in China or not. It means doing a bit of research and paying more perhaps for the same sort of product.

It'll be hard. But we can contribute to making the world a better place. And my God it needs to be improved especially, for me, concerning the lack of animal welfare in Asia.

RELATED: How can the 10-day dog meat market in Yulin be called a FESTIVAL!?

I think that we are addicted to cheap Chinese products. They do make some great products which is why online businesses such as Amazon sell billions of them. And I love Amazon. But, we should make an effort I think to put some pressure on China to change their attitudes and culture regarding the cat and dog meat businesses.

It's just too cruel to ignore. The governments of Western countries do not want to put any pressure on China to improve animal welfare in their country. It is, therefore, down to the citizens of these countries to take unilateral action. To do their little bit to put even a tiny bit of pressure on China. 

If millions of people stopped buying Chinese products it may achieve something. It is highly unlikely obviously because only about 10 people will read this post!! But something has to be done because every day, on Twitter, we see the barbaric human behaviour at the Yulin dog meat festival. We can't simply acquiesce to this. In acquiescing we are accepting it.

I know there is a cultural issue here. People say that people in one country should not get involved in the culture of another country. In general, I tend to agree with that except in exceptional circumstances as is the case with gross animal cruelty. In my mind this is a universal and global issue. It is up to anyone anywhere to criticise and become involved. This is about mother Earth not individual countries and their cultures.

Today is a good day to to #BoycottChina and stop shopping except for the most important items. Even the cheapest #Chinese items add up.#StopYulin

Save money, send a message. We do not accept ⬇️
⚠️ WARNING ⚠️ https://t.co/HiaQCN9AS6 pic.twitter.com/CWIN0XzwOI

— Phaedra (@PhaedraXTeddy) June 3, 2023

Cooling down the dogs on a dog meat farm

CHINA - OPINION: Go to Twitter and search for 'dogs China'. All the top search results are dogs being treated cruelly in dog meat farms. Or dogs being cruelly transported on lorries to be driven to the south for the dog meat market. 

The dog are compressed into small metal cages. They are on top of each other. They are confused and terrified but they have blank expressions on their faces as if numbed by the experience. 

For them the alpha dog (the human) has turned against them when they should be supporting them. Alpha dog wants to eat pack member. That's what is looks like to the dog destined for the dog meat market.

Here, in this video, sickly sweet Chinese music plays over a dog meat farmer as he cools down the dogs in more rusty metal cages. These animals will be transported to the dog meat market.

It looks like a humanitarian, kindly act. No. He just wants to keep his dogs alive long enough so they can be brutally killed at the market so the meat is fresh. It is a commercial decision; not one based on animal welfare. I don't think the phrase 'animal welfare' exists in the Chinese language. Animal welfare laws certainly don't.

All these dogs, as far as I know, have been snatched from the street or from back or front yards. They are street dogs, domestic dogs or stray dogs. It doesn't make any difference to the brutes who make their money from this abject animal cruelty.

The law does nothing. Correction. There is no law in China to stop this. Imagine trying to do this in the UK or Sweden or the USA. You'd be in the criminal courts as fast as you could say 'dog meat'. 

China: Angel of Death dog snatcher arrives on a bike to fire a dart into a street dog

OPINION: This is another way that cruel men travel around a big conurbation in China (perhaps in the north somewhere) looking for street and domestic dogs to snatch. They take them to the south of China, to the dog meat markets by lorry in the most appalling conditions. In this instance, this man who I have described as the "Angel of Death" is a pillion passenger on a small bike. 

They are searching for stray dogs and one turns up. They stop and the Angel of Death fires a dart into the dog who immediately collapses and is then taken away speedily. See the video below.

RELATED: 25,000-30,000 dogs are being slaughtered DAILY for food in China.

China: Angel of Death dog snatcher arrives on a bike to fire a dart into a street dog. Image: MikeB.

I have decided that he is using a tranquilizing dart of some sort rather than simply shooting the dog in order to keep the animal alive for the journey to the south where they are brutally killed as fresh meat. The great brutality of all this is that they kill them in the most heinous and sadistic way. 

It's as if the dogs have gone to hell. This is hell on earth for a dog and the devils are killing them. And the journey to hell on earth for a dog starts as we see in the video on this page.

In another video I show a couple of Chinese guys jumping over the wall surrounding a front yard to snatch two more dogs this time using dog arresting poles to drag them over the wall and into a van. Once again it is extremely brutal. You can see that video if you want by clicking on this link.

I am writing quite a few articles about the cat and dog meat industry in China because it needs to be highlighted. There are some very brave people in China who are protesting about the lack of animal welfare laws in China. There needs to be protests as well about the dog and cat meat markets in China and one day, when the world is a better place, when it is more civilised, the international community will put pressure on China to ditch these horrendous traditions which go back perhaps 2,000 years and which are now so out of place in the modern world.

This is how Chinese thieves steal dogs for the dog meat market

The video is completely explanatory and horrific to any decent person. It shows a couple of men getting out of a van and climbing the wall surrounding a front yard in which are two pet dogs. They use dog catcher poles to capture the dogs and in the case of one of the dogs drag them over the wall with force by the steel collar around his neck. Horrendous. It could have killed the dog. Perhaps it did. 

Utterly, utterly brutal. By Western criminal standards these men are psychopathic bastards. They'd be in jail for several years if they did this in the UK and were caught and successful prosecuted.

The dogs are then driven in lorries in very cramped, rusty cages to China's south to the dog markets where their end will be shockingly brutal. My heart hurts for them. May they rest in peace. Bless them. As a wise person said, hell is empty. All the devils are stealing cats and dogs in China for dog meat and fur.

I won't say what I'd like to do to these men. It'd be as brutal as the abuse they mete out to the dogs.

Animal rights activists in China fighting against the cat and dog meat trade

This is a good news story for animal advocates among the depressing stuff from China. The world is aware of the barbaric and brutal cat and dog meat trade in China. It truly is the worst of human behaviour resulting in catastrophic cruelty to, often, domestic animals. 

Yes, a recent story on the Independent newspaper states that 126 animals were saved from a slaughterhouse. These dogs were destined for a brutal death but were plucked to safety from an illegal operation. Many of these animals had collars. These are domestic companion animals. They are stolen from the streets and from houses et cetera to fuel this disgusting trade.

If the authorities were doing their job this trade wouldn't happen. If China had animal welfare laws it wouldn't happen. If they had animal welfare laws that were enforced it wouldn't happen. This trade is entirely due to ridiculous, out of date and ancient superstitions in combination with local government and national government which is entirely disinterested in animal welfare.

However, on the upside, there are some green shoots and there have been for some time of animal activist in China - and these are Chinese people - fighting back. One example is on Newsweek. It shows a video in which 282 dogs, some destined for the meat trade being rescued. The animal advocates intercepted a truck carrying these dogs.

On the truck there were 260 puppies and 22 adult dogs. The truck was making a 1000-mile journey. It was stopped on a highway in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui. The news comes from the Humane Society International. They described it as a "truck from hell". The conditions were so poor that 12 of the puppies had died at the time the truck was intercepted. A further 18 died shortly afterwards due to parvovirus and distemper. The surviving puppies suffered from dehydration and starvation in skin diseases.

However, if you do a search on Google, you will find that there are quite a few animal rescues by animal advocates in China normally from the back of trucks. These animals are destined to be brutally slaughtered by psychopathic traders. How do people become that callous? Many, many years of a culture and their way of life which simply totally disregards the sentience of animals and the fact that they feel pain and have emotions. That's the reason.

But this is a good news story because I'm seeing a change in China although it is far too slow. How does China think that they can integrate into the world community if they refuse to enact animal welfare laws. China is eons behind the UK and other European countries in this regard. They are living in the past. Their attitude towards animal welfare is that of mediaeval times. Shame on them. Shame on the president of China who supports traditional Chinese medicine which is the source of huge conservation problems but that is another subject albeit equally bad and depressing.

At last: a town in Vietnam is trying to phase out cat and dog meat

NEWS AND COMMENT-CENTRAL HOI AN: Central Hoi An town will trying to stop the sale of cat and dog meat at the end of 2021 under what is described as a Memorandum of Understanding with animal welfare organisation Four Paws. The reason? To create a tourist-friendly environment and to stop the spread of rabies. Also to improve animal rights 👍.

This is China but it is exactly same - Yulin meat festival. A family of dogs is about to feel immense suffering and pain before being eaten by people. Photo: Getty.

I would like to read between the lines and add that tourists from the West do not like to see cats and dogs cooked at stalls. It's a big barrier to enjoyment in what is I understand an interesting country to visit for a tourist. And of course I feel I should add that Covid has played a part here. I'm thinking of the wet markets in China where Covid might have started. These places are where disease can be spread from animal to person.

RELATED: How to stop the cat meat trade in Vietnam.

For me, it is amazingly good news. It is as if a small chip has been taken out of the edifice that is the cat and dog meat market in Asia. Perhaps the city administrators have seen the light or they had a eureka moment when they realised that eating domestic and stray cats does not sit that easy with Western tourists. To be frank, it should not sit easy with Vietnamese people either because often these are domestic pets and also often they are not killed under regulated conditions i.e. they are killed cruelly. I won't go on.

Julie Sanders, the Director of Companion Animals at Four Paws reminds us that about 5 million dogs and cats in Vietnam are killed for cat and dog meat and consumed. She says this presents a community health risk. She is hopeful that this initiative will be replicated in other places in Vietnam.

Nguyen The Hung, vice chairman of Hoi An People’s Committee provides with us a clue that this is more than simply about tourism. It is about animal rights. He said that the committee wants to bolster animal rights. It pleases me tremendously to hear that.

He believes that it will make the town a 'green' tourist destination. I take that to mean a family orientated tourist destination meaning suitable for all tourists. I wonder if Western tourists have complained to Vietnam's Tourist Association online about cat and dog meat in that country. I suspect that they have.

The weakness in this initiative is that Hung says that traders in cat and dog meat cannot be banned from selling it but only encouraged to change their ways. That, in contrast, displeases me tremendously because cat and dog meat is a deeply ingrained culture. 

It is going to be hard to stop. And perhaps for some people it is their only income. You wonder if it might be a good idea for the authorities to provide them with a little bit of compensation financially to encourage them find an alternative means of generating an income.

I'm told that there are 2,500 dogs and cats in this town and 70-90% are vaccinated against rabies. My online research tells me that more than 70 people in Vietnam are killed each year by rabies; nearly always from a bite from a rabid dog. Is rabies a problem in Vietnam? It is and it has been for more than 40 years.

Over the preceding five years on average 350,000 people annually have been bitten by mainly dogs and some cats and another website tells me that more than 80 people have died of rabies as a consequence.

The story comes from vnexpress.net. They do not publish a picture of a cat meat trader which I think is telling. It tells us that such photos are objectionable. They are. I can't show them either as advertisers  find them unacceptable. That's a reason for the proposed phasing out of this archaic business. 

They eat cat meat under the superstition that is cures arthritis and other diseases. I'm sorry to say it but it is idiotic because there is not one iota of science behind that superstition. But as a consequence millions of cats and dogs have been killed and consumed. All on the basis of superstition. It's time to move into the 21st-century and apply a bit of common sense and science, please.

Cat and baby deer play together (video) - interspecies relationships

The first thing I think about when I see video above - this sweet vignette of an example of an interspecies relationship - is the sport hunting of deer. Why do people find this relationship as shown in the video so charming (and it is) while at the same time allowing deer to be hunted in such large numbers in America? 

Coronavirus pandemic should stop unregulated cat and dog meat businesses

Just a quick note on the grisly and sad topic of cat and dog meat. It is still big business in Vietnam and Southern China and elsewhere in Asia. At one stage Vietnam had a rat infestation problem and believed that the cat meat industry was allowing rat numbers to increase so they introduced a government directive to end 'cat-meat eateries' (Directive No.09/1998/CT-TTg). That law was revoked a year ago. It failed clearly.

The sad and disgusting cat meat trade can expose people to zoonotic diseases.
Pic in public domain in my view.

So there appears to be rumblings in parts of Asia on the subject of how to change people's habits in eating people's pets. It is deeply engrained. How it got to that stage is beyond my comprehension. It is obviously immoral. 

But a reason to stop eating people's pets goes well beyond morality. It is all about human health and wellbeing. The coronavirus pandemic tells us that when humans slaughter animals in an unregulated way in open markets they expose themselves to being infected by zoonotic diseases present in those animals.

Cats are the number one vector for toxoplasmosis for instance. I am sure a lot of Chinese and Vietnamese have caught toxoplasmosis from the domestic cats that they have eaten. They might not know it. They might feel a bit ill persistently. They have no idea that their low level illness is due to their careless approach to animal welfare and their unthinking habit of eating cats, sometimes pet animals.

It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that another zoonotic coronavirus-type disease could be transmitted from domestic cats slaughtered for human consumption in a seedy market in the south of China. Surely the coronavirus pandemic must be a lesson to these people to be far more careful to avoid zoonotic diseases?

The Chinese conurbation of Shenzhen banned cat and dog meat because of the coronavirus pandemic. Clearly the authorities are concerned. Their eyes are open to the inherent dangers of unregulated slaughter and consumption cat and dog meat. Others need to follows asap.

A study found an association between Toxoplasma gondii infection and psychiatric disorders in Zhejiang, Southeastern China. This is not far from the epidentre of the cat and dog meat industry in China as I understand it. Is there a link between the conclusion of this study and eating cat meat?

Nature has a way of 'punishing' animal abusers. The pandemic is the paradigm example. Abuse nature and nature will strike back. If they can't stop eating cat and dog meat for reasons of morality then do it in the interests of human health.

Nature has taught humankind a lesson. Some Asians refuse to learn the lesson and digest it.

9 countries where they eat cat and dog meat (2020)

China - dog meat. For me it is horrific. What about you?

Although China is known to be the country where cat and dog meat is eaten in large quantities, in the south of the country particularly, there are eight others and one of them, surprisingly, is the United States of America. I'm not sure where it happens or whether certain states have banned it or indeed whether there are plans nationwide to ban it. I thought I had read somewhere that the federal government had stopped the eating of cat and dog meat but I appear to be wrong. The American government has, however, put pressure on China to end the cat meat trade.

Apparently, people in Hawaii like to eat stray cats and dogs and have done so for years. A proposed bill to ban it was shelved because apparently there was no enough evidence that it actually took place.

Vietnam is another country where they eat a lot of cat and dog meat. The dogs are snatched from the streets of Ho Chi Minh City and sold to restaurants and street vendors. There is a lucrative black market trade. Dog meat can sell for about $10 per kilogram. It is used in dog stew and in a soup of blood apparently. You can get barbecue dog lemongrass and ginger and steamed dog with shrimp-paste sauce. To me, it sounds disgusting. It is not part of the contract between dogs or cats and humans to allow humans to slaughter them brutally and then eat them. That term was not written into the contract. There is a booming appetite in Vietnam for cat and dog meat. It is deeply ingrained into their psyche and their culture.

Another country where this practice takes place is a European country namely Switzerland. Farmers in the hills of Switzerland like to eat cat and dog meat occasionally. They tend to prefer Rottweiler because it tastes like beef. Eating cat and dog mean apparently is quite popular in the Rhine Valley and dog lard is occasionally used for medicinal purposes in this attractive country. For me, the practice of eating cat and dog meat is unattractive. How is it compatible with European culture? Switzerland is not in the EU and therefore companion animals are unprotected by EU law.

In French Polynesia they have eaten cat and dog meat for hundreds of years. When European settlers arrived in 1769 it appears that they wanted to engender the idea that cats and dogs were pets but the practice persists. Reportedly, Captain Cook and his crew ate dog meat when they arrived on the islands.

Korea consumes about 2.5 million dogs as a health food. I am talking about South Korea. We don't know what happens in North Korea but I would suspect that they have the same attitude towards eating companion animals. Eating dog meat is particularly popular in the summer. Some people believe that eating dog on the warmest days of the year helps to beat the heat. It is a $2 billion-a-year industry in the country.

I have just realised that there is a tenth country where they eat cat meat and that country is India. It is not at all widespread but it does happen in some villages. I have written about this so please click on this link to read the article.

I must finish on a slightly uplifting note. There is a gradual shift away from cat and dog meat in the Far East. There are animal advocates in China for example who rescue dogs and cats from the back of trucks while they are being transported to cat and dog meat markets. It is pleasant to understand that there are animal advocates on the ground in China during this. 

The Internet plays a big role here. Although chunks of the Internet are banned from the Chinese, the attitudes about the relationship between humans and cats and dogs in the West is infiltrating into Chinese society, I believe. So gradually they are becoming more aware that cats and dogs are just pets and not to be eaten. Of course, there are many millions of Chinese who live contentedly with well loved companion cats and dogs which I must say is contradictory bearing in mind the thousands killed brutally to be eaten.

I am told that dog meat is eaten in hard times in Canada, Greenland and Siberia (Russia). I have balled these together.

Chinese Dog Meat Festival

Animal advocates protest against dog meat festival.

Photo: screenshot from Weibo. I have not chosen a dog photo
as they are too disturbing.

Fifteenth of June 2014: The annual dog meat festival is about to take place in Yulin, Guangxi province. This article, then, is not about cats. However, it is very closely related to cats because in this part of China they also consume cat meat, a cultural practice which many people in the West find extremely distasteful. This is a cultural issue.

However, it is more than that because gradually a section of Chinese society are beginning to discover the distasteful nature of eating dog and cat meat.

Up to 10,000 dogs are expected to be eaten during next weekend's festival.  The festival is timed to coincide with the summer solstice and the dog meat is washed down with lychee wine.

Despite this being a long-standing tradition and widely accepted, the event, nowadays, is causing controversy within China. The actress Yang Mi made a plea on China's version of Twitter, Sina Weibo, to the government to ban the festival to which 72,000 people commented. You can see that it is a hot topic with very polarised viewpoints.

Dog lovers are bombarding some restauranteurs with threatening phone calls.  One restauranteur mentioned that she was receiving up to 30 threatening phone calls per day.  There have been attempts to free the dogs from their cages. Some protesters have been detained by the authorities. About 400 dogs were bought by animal advocates with money donated by animal lovers. These dogs have been resettled in Shangrao, Jiangxi province.

Some restaurants are responding to the pressure from animal advocates by substituting dog meat with donkey meat but it is unpopular with their customers as half of them refuse eat it and walk out.

The argument within China for eating dog meat is that they are stray dogs and therefore without an owner (although that need not necessarily be the case), therefore what difference is there between stray dogs and pigs (which no one complains about). The manager of one restaurant says “their protest doesn't make any sense".

I understand the argument for eating dog and cat meat. On the face of it there is little difference between a stray dog or cat and farm livestock.  However, the counter argument is that there is a difference.

Farm livestock is reared to be consumed whereas the role of the cat and dog in all societies is primarily as a companion to their human caretaker - this is an un-written agreement because, let us not forget that, the domestic dog domesticated him/herself in a mutual understanding between the grey wolf and ourselves about 30,000 years ago. To kill the dog for human consumption is seen by some as reneging on an ancient agreement.

Article by Michael. Sources: Times and South China Morning Post