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Perhaps one day they will realize what they're missing, at least in the case of dogs & cats.
Maybe, maybe not. The Chinese Emperors and the high nobility kept pet dogs as a sign of wealth and such power that they could afford being indolent. For the Chinese peasantry, a dog was only valuable doing a job. When the dog couldn't, or wouldn't do the job, he was slaughtered, just like an ox, horse, or pig was.
That's a much more common societal norm than keeping a pet as if the pet is as precious as a human family member. Historically, dogs and cats had to work for their living world wide. People cherished their animals, but had no reservations about eating them when necessary.
In most cultures, dogs were pretty much ignored. If a dog wanted to help out human hunters, that was good. But humans didn't go out of their way to make them companions. That was the dog's first job. If the hunting dog scared away the game, he was killed with no great tormented human decision.
Not every society ate them; as often as not, dogs were seen as unclean creatures, so eating them was as repulsive as eating a cockroach is to us.
But for every society that places restrictions on what animals are seen as clean food, there is another society that believes passing up food is a sin, no matter what the animal that's eaten is. Only creatures known to be poisonous or indigestible aren't eaten. Most of Asia sees all critters this way.
So did most English and Europeans until Queen Victoria's ways took over in most of the British Empire. Victoria loved her lapdogs and singlehandedly popularized all the toy dogs and the other non-working breeds. She made it cool to keep a pet that did nothing at all but be cute.
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That's true. During a great famine in history the Chinese were encouraged to eat rat. Just like any other animal, man will eat whatever he can get his hands on to survive.
Interestingly enough, I read somewhere that before this fad the Tibetan Mastiff was on the verge of extinction. The breed is definately a status symbol, its eats a lot and that is too costly for most.
I dont like this topic, but I do understand most cultural differences. I applaud those who are trying to change the mindset of those who relish the flavor of dog. Bravo!
Evidently Tibetan Mastiffs were all the rage in China during 2013 and now, not so much. It's gotten to the point where they're overstocked and what they're doing now is sickening to say the least. I cannot for the life of me understand how a human could be so cruel to such a wonderful animal.
"Instead, earlier this year Nibble and 20 more unlucky mastiffs found themselves stuffed into metal chicken crates and packed onto a truck with 150 other dogs. If not for a band of Beijing animal rights activists who literally threw themselves in front of the truck, Nibble and the rest would have ended up at a slaughterhouse in northeast China where, at roughly $5 a head, they would have been rendered into hot pot ingredients, imitation leather and the lining for winter gloves."
To make it worse it seems that this is NOT the first time.
During her 25 years in China, Ms. Peng has seen successive waves of dog fads, which invariably begin with speculative breeding and end in mass abandonment. “Ten years ago, it was German shepherds, then golden retrievers, then Dalmatians and then huskies,†she said. “But given the crazy prices we were seeing a few years ago, I never thought I’d see a Tibetan mastiff on the back of a meat truck
Hello these are 3rd world countries with 3rd class people living in them. What do you expect????
Do you even know the difference between First World, Second World and Third World countries? Where do you think China fits?
Mick
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It's China...
