I agree with animal activists calling for a total ban on dog meat consumption in the UK, which is said to be on the rise. Apparently, while you can’t buy or sell dog meat, you can kill your own dog and eat it if you do so humanely! First of all, there’s no such thing as killing anything, “humanely.” You’re taking this animal’s life. What’s charitable about that? Secondly, this is your dog, your pet, also commonly referred to as “Man’s Best Friend.” Why would you want to eat it? Dog Meat Lovers say the rest of us are overreacting and claim it’s just like eating any other animal or living thing. Fish, cows, pigs, turkeys, chicken… I guess they have a point but I still don’t think it’s okay to eat dog, cat, horse or any other pet. I think there’s enough “normal” meat to go around. Personally, I would never knowingly indulge, mainly because I’m picky and stick to beef most of the time, goat maybe once or twice a year, chicken and certain kinds of fish. All these have distinctive tastes and I’m pretty sure I’d tell if someone tried to trick me into eating anything else. Those who have eaten dog say it tastes just like regular meat but I don’t believe that and no, I wouldn’t try it just to confirm! Many Vegetarians cite animal cruelty as one of the reasons they stopped eating meat, and sometimes I think about that too, but once you’ve had meat it’s hard to cut it out of your diet. I did write about my attempt to go Vegan and while I don’t eat meat every single day, I still crave it. Sometimes I’ll go out with friends and that barbecue aroma is just impossible to resist, or I’ll see a commercial on TV and next thing I know, I’m cutting into some juicy beef! Also, while I don’t eat eggs that often now, there was a time I lived for them. Like many of her peers, my Mum had her chicken-rearing phase, and you bet we had eggs for breakfast most mornings. Sometimes we even cracked some on purpose because no one would buy the broken ones! I have friends who have their own poultry projects now but it’s not something I’d do. Initially, it was purely because of the hard work and patience that goes into it. And what if they were struck by one of those diseases that require the entire flock to be culled? Now though, I’d feel guilty about keeping them and then sending them off to the slaughter house a couple of months down the road even though I will still order chicken! But I digress. I’d like to know if anyone reading this would happily eat dog. My worry is that not many people would and so if someone slaughtered one, they wouldn’t finish it by themselves and would maybe feel compelled to “share”. Do you think if you went to someone’s house, they’d openly let you know it’s dog for lunch or dinner? I doubt it. I also fear some would cut a deal with the local butcher to pass it off as regular meat to unsuspecting buyers! One more reason to go Vegan!
