I think he's saying that from a resource allocation perspective, meat is much more expensive to raise than produce, especially when you're raising it on... well... meat. So farming dogs for food would, combined with increased meat consumption patterns in the developing world, bring us closer to a situation where the only meat realistically available after resource depletion and mismanagement would be soylent steak and long pig.
Ah, you see, there's a difference. I have no beef (pun intended) with cultural or religious motivation behind the eschewing of certain animals as food; it's the MORAL motivation behind refraining from eating them that I regard as being silly. Oh, fair enough. But I'd still like to see if there were someone who'd cringe from eating Fido, but wouldn't mind eating the mutt in the alley. Would it really get that drastic, though? Because I can't see that happening, not in a hundred years.
So why the hell do you think many people don't eat dogs? It's not just a moral thing for absolutely everybody, it's a cultural thing too. Our culture is often a very important factor in our own morals. And I'm sure the people that have problems with eating cows due to religious or cultural values also don't eat them because of some moral motivation. It's all about how people are brought up, dude.
While that was those were the main issues I was getting at in the post, that was not exactly my point. Mostly I was just trying to have a go at it from another angle. Although, when push comes to shove in terms of global resources, there does come the point where on some level we may be literally eating other people out of their livelihood. If meat consumption as a driving force pushes the price of grain too high, some people presumably will starve. It may already be happening to some extent, but there are so many other factors involved in starvation, that it's not necessarily going to be clear. If these things go up or down a few cents doesn't make much difference to us, but that's going to be much more significant percentage of what people have to spend in third world economies. Let me put it this way: You look a dog in the eye, it's not the stupified gaze of a cow or a chicken. Dogs will look back at you, register your emotions, react. We have a mutual kinship with dogs, and you don't eat your kin. Because that's cannibalism.
Wow. This is one of the few threads that have truly made me uncomfortable while reading through it. I understand free speech, but posting this shit at in a board with posters who primarily have grown up in cultures that have strong attachments to dogs as pets is just... out there.
Didn't read the thread (yet). But as a Westerner eating dog seems wrong. However i have eaten rabbit (on many occasions) even when we used to have a pet rabbit. We didn't eat the pet but we did eat wild rabbit. Kinda messed up logic but there you are. However i don't think people who eat Dog in Eastern countries are evil, unless they mistreat the animal.
You know, this thread disappoints me. 3 Pages by my settings and not a single discussion about Fallout 3.
I responded to a thread exactly like this on another forum. I'll copy pasta it: "There's nothing wrong with it. That's one of the things that bothers me about this society. Eat chicken? It's ok. Eat pig? It's ok. Eat cow? It's ok. Eat fish? It's ok. Eat dog? OMG YOU MONSTER WHAT ARE YOU DOING WHAT THE HELL" Even with the "people see them as pets" argument everyone uses, personally, I'd have no hesitation to eat dog meat even if I did have one as a pet. It's one of those moral things everyone seems to have but I don't give two shits about. I have no problem with people not wanting to eat certain stuff, but it's annoying when people judge others for eating it. I'm just giving my
Right here. I'm willing to give most any food a try at least once, so if I was somewhere that regularly prepared dog, I'd be up for it. I mean, provided I could be reasonably sure that the dogs were raised as food animals, anyway. Lord alone knows what that mutt in the alley's crawling with. But my girlfriend has a few damn good dogs, and I couldn't picture them as food unless things became extremely grim indeed. It'd be weird eating someone you know and like.
We teach dogs to help blind people, sniff for bombs and illegal drugs, and help rescue people in disasters, AND YOU WANT TO EAT THEM? Sick bastard.
Well, I don't think anyone is talking about eating THOSE particular dogs. But by the same token, see my above post about cows. They plow and fertilize our fields in many parts of the world, give us milk and cheese, and we eat them without being considered sick bastards by many. I'll admit the bond between dogs and humans is certainly one that is unique, however.
IMHO, meat is meat. Its just plain hypocritical to eat one kind and say another is off limits. Cows and pigs have feelings too. Fuck, pigs can be trained to do what dogs do. The only real reason we are not eating dogs right now is because raising dogs commercially for the sole reason of human consumption is not financially viable. People make more money by breeding dogs for pets vs. Breeding them for food. Wouldn't it be awesome to have hotdogs be made up of real dogs?
As someone who has a slight dislike dogs (don't hate them, but I can't live with them) I wouldn't have any moral reason not to eat one. They're a little dirty, but so are other edible animals. For me it would be a matter of taste and presentation. If it looks good and tastes good, I'll eat it. Only thing close to unusual I ever eat is deer, I don't really like the gamey taste though.
Why not? Because its unnecessary. There's plenty of other delicious, readily available, non-man's best friend proteins.
i am reminded of the scene from demolition man. where sly was in a underground town where he got a burger made from rat. giving it more thought, i see how the will to survive would cause someone to eat something they normally wouldn't. but would there ever be a time or need to do such a thing?
Personally, I consider other canids like foxes and coyotes as fair, if exotic, game, but dogs would be hard to raise for food, I'd think. You'd have to raise other animals just to feed them, and they are easily trained to assist you in many ways (like raising other animals for food). Strays, not being totally "wild," would probably loaded with health problems ("this thing could give you rabies, let's eat it"). Meh, as long as it wasn't someone's pet...
Dogs ( & cats) are considered companions , buddies, etc. It would feel weird to eat our friends. It's ok to eat them if you prefer, there's just so much more on the menu , don't really have a craving for it. Most of the time.
