Anneleise Smillie's article 'Friends... or food?'

[Guest guest]

Anneleise Smillie (of Animals Asia Foundation)'

article against eating dogs is published in Friends of

Dogs site. Please circulate widely prior to the

worldwide demo for korean dogs and cats on 12th of

March.

 

http://www.geocities.com/yoons_choi/nodogmeat3.html

 

Friends...or Food? by Anneleise Smillie

 

As an animal welfare group based in Asia the Animals

Asia Foundation would like to put forward a few

salient points regarding the controversial practice of

dog eating to show the other side of the argument and

hopefully enable individuals to make informed and

compassionate choices.

 

What is fundamental in the practice of dog eating is

that the cruelty is often deliberate and slaughter

methods have been designed to intensify and prolong

the suffering in the misguided belief that 'torture

equals taste'. In situations where the torture is not

deliberate, the method of slaughter is still

tragically cruel. Markets in China, Vietnam and

S.Korea reveal killing methods which leave both dogs

and cats suffering a lingering, violent death as they

are either bludgeoned over the head, stabbed in the

neck or groin, hung, electrocuted or thrown conscious

into drums of boiling water.

 

Dr John Wedderburn, a Western medical doctor who has

worked for thirty years in Hong Kong and has travelled

extensively throughout Asia studying this issue, has

the following to say: " I understand and respect the

concepts and practices of medicine in the various

Eastern cultures and I have conversed at length with

practitioners of Traditional Medicine. I have yet to

meet a TM doctor who believes that eating dog has any

beneficial effect on any aspect of health including

virility. The market is entirely from supplier to

consumer without the recommendation of doctors. In any

case, even if there was some slight beneficial effect

from eating dog, the cruelty and suffering could not

be justified as there are far more effective

substances available in both Western and Eastern

medicine. "

 

Whilst Traditional Practitioner Dr.

Lo Yan Wo states the following:

" In Chinese tradition, eating cat is believed to

enrich and moisten the body and eating dog is believed

to warm the body and enhance male virility and

stamina. However, culture should not be an excuse for

cruelty and in Traditional there are

many alternatives to the use of these animals. When we

are making progress in civilization, we should also

make progress in our hearts and minds. There is no

need to kill and eat our faithful animal friends. "

 

Culture and tradition should not be excuses for

cruelty. The argument that a certain practice is

historically part of a culture does not make it

acceptable and this argument in itself is incongruous,

as in many of the places where dogs are eaten the

practice is less than a few generations old. In fact

in Korea, contrary to popular belief, dog eating is a

relatively recent phenomenon and has never been a part

of a long-standing culinary history. The fabrication

of dog and cat meat as

an age-old part of Korean cultural heritage is a

clever marketing strategy by unscrupulous

vendors who are exploiting an easy to produce

commodity.

 

" Culture has often been used as an excuse to turn away

from suffering and people in both Asia and the West

often use cultural relativism to soothe their

conscience for doing nothing. Surely we want to regard

various practices in our history (such as slavery and

cannibalism) as something to be rid of rather than

treat them as 'culture' and demand respect

accordingly? In Asia where people regard friendship

and loyalty as prominent virtues, we should work

towards a society where

love and respect are celebrated. " Sung Su Kim

 

Arguments that a dog is no different to a chicken, a

cow or even a frog, fail to address the core fact that

no government in any country has devised a way of

killing dogs humanely for commercial purposes. As

carnivores, they are inherently different in

temperament and physiology to those domestic species

more commonly raised intensively en-masse for food. A

Hong Kong Government Agriculture, Fisheries and

Conservation Department Veterinary representative has

stated that dogs cannot be humanely raised and

slaughtered for food. Whilst it is difficult to

avoid accusations of double standards by deeming one

animal a companion and another a

'food' animal (suffering cannot be excused with the

argument that an animal has been purposely bred for

food), we firmly believe that change must start

somewhere and that dogs, as our age old best friends,

can serve as valuable ambassadors for all animal

species. If one can feel compassion for an individual

animal, then hopefully this compassion will expand to

include an entire species and eventually lend itself

to a greater empathy for all animals.

 

Animals Asia is finding solutions to the problems of

dog eating, through pioneering grass roots programmes

which promote animals as ambassadors and highlight the

mutually beneficial relationship between people and

companion animals, whilst working to implement and

enforce appropriate animal welfare legislation. Our

innovative animal therapy programme, Dr. Dog, sees

over 300 'dog doctors' spreading love and warmth to

people in need in hospitals, disabled centres, homes

for the young and elderly, orphanages and schools in

six countries throughout Asia.

Similarly, our Detective Dog, Simba, who is the first

animal parts sniffer dog in Asia, is working

tirelessly to combat the escalating trade in

endangered species.Our animal ambassadors, like Simba

and rescued market dog Eddie, represent the driving

force behind a new movement to promote the concept of

animal welfare in Asia and give hope to the many

animals that lie forgotten.

 

For more information about Dr. Dog, Detective Dog and

the China Bear Rescue please visit our website at

www.animalsasia.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

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