The Yulin Dog Meat Festival

On June 22, Yulin celebrated its annual Dog Meat Festival, where thousands of dogs and cats were consumed in a variety of dishes. This is obviously upsetting to many people of many cultures; the online images of these animals being slaughtered is graphic and according to many animal rights groups depicts inhumane treatment, and dogs and cats have long been considered "companion animals" by western civilization, meaning that a strict "friends not food" policy has been adopted.

Personally, I also won't eat bunnies or ducks for the same reason, but I am under no delusion that my opinion that they are cute friends and not delicious food items is going to stop the greater public from consuming them. The line between food and friend is often blurred by a culture's preconception of an animal. Many western cultures, after all, enjoy pork, but to both vegetarians and Muslims this is unforgivable.

My friend, not my food.

Furthermore, dogs have been consumed for centuries by a variety of cultures. They have also long been regarded as working animals, becoming pets only to those who have the luxury to afford to keep them for no profit.

Even Domenico Fetti's painting Peter's Vision of a Sheet With Animals -- the sheet which, according to the New Testament, God showed to Peter as an indication that the ban on consuming non-kosher animals as food had been lifted -- appears to include a dog with the now "edible" animals.

"Rise, Peter; kill, and eat...What God hath cleansed, call not thou common"

The real question the Yulin festival should be raising is not should dogs be considered a food in other cultures, but rather why do humans universally feel the need to mistreat their livestock, whatever it may be? 

You have probably heard that raising animals for human consumption on a large scale is far too expensive to accomplish using methods other than those currently in place. This is possibly true, but perhaps some of the cost should be passed on to the consumer. After all, a dozen eggs can feed a family of four for at least one meal and costs around $3, while the average game system feeds no one and costs $300. Why is it that we are willing to pay so little for the food that sustains us, while we are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for luxury items we don't need? When did lives become so worthless?

When I was in high school, I had a catholic friend who for various reasons had to quit being a vegetarian. He would pray before his meals -- not asking for God's forgiveness for eating animals, but instead thanking the animals he was about to eat for giving their lives for him. While this is unlikely to become a common practice, it is unfortunate that most humans do not even seem to recognize the importance of the link between themselves and animals.

In America, battery cages are still in use for egg production. These cages, approximately the size of a large microwave, house eight to ten hens for the duration of their egg-laying lives. In many countries, pigs are rendered unconscious using a bolt gun, a device which destroys the cerebrum while keeping the brain stem alive so that exsanguination occurs while the heart is still beating. Calves spend their 20 week lives in confining crates in order to limit their movements, which produces more tender veal. Lobsters are boiled alive. 

I am not by any means advocating abstaining from eating meats; humans are by nature meat eaters. But maybe next time you're food shopping, think of Yulin and consider whether you would have had your pet live and die in the same manner as the livestock you're about to buy. Would you really keep ten chihuahuas in a filling cabinet drawer? Or boil your cat alive? Maybe if enough people think of Yulin and pay the extra 75 cents for free range eggs, it will impact profits and change the food industry standards.

Enjoying the ride...wherever it might lead.

(Photo credit: mynonleatherlife.com)