SCMP 12/13/04: Canine restaurant Beijing

[Guest guest]

South China Morning Post Monday, December 13, 2004

 

A la carte for the pampered pooch

BENJAMIN ROBERTSON in Beijing

 

The idea of having a dog for dinner has become more palatable thanks

to a new restaurant in Beijing.

 

But the Hip Dog Club, opened by Hong Kong-born Elaine Loke, places

dogs in the dining chair and not on the plates. The club is the first

of its kind on the mainland and came about after Ms Loke noticed the

growing consumer market for pet-related products.

 

Diners can select from a range of homemade dog biscuits and treats.

The gourmet delights include a garlic chicken " anti-flea " dish and

lemon-flavoured " teeth-whitening " biscuits. And while the customers

eat, owners can examine the latest in fashion accessories for their

pampered pooches.

 

Ms Loke hit on the idea of a restaurant for dogs while travelling in

Japan last year. Put off by the high rents in Hong Kong, she moved to

the capital and opened the Hip Dog Club in the Sanlitun bar district.

 

Although owning a dog is still something of a status symbol in Beijing

due to the registration fee - an initial 5,000 yuan plus as extra

2,000 yuan per year - ownership numbers have skyrocketed in recent

years. In 2002 there were 130,000 registered dogs, but the figure is

now as high as 410,000, along with an estimated 1 million unregistered

pets.

 

" People are buying dogs because they see them as companion animals, "

says Ren Feng, chief editor of Pet Pie magazine. " People's lives are

increasingly stressful so having a companion helps ease the pressures

of life. "

 

An entire industry has emerged to cash in on the trend. Dogs can be

washed in scented bathwater in the morning, sent to a psychologist in

the afternoon and walked with the local dog club in the evening.

 

" It's great for the dog as they get into a more social environment and

can get used to other dogs and humans, " said pet owner Michelle Tsui.

 

And when a beloved pooch dies, what better way to say goodbye in style

than by spending US$800 at the mainland's first pets-only funeral home?

 

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Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper

Postal mailing address: P.O. Box 960, Clinton WA 98236 U.S.A.

CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS IS: <ANPEOPLE

Website: http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/ with French and Spanish

language subsections.

 

 

Something to think about: We believe that the Golden Rule

applies to animals, too. We don't accept the prevailing notion

that " people come first' " or that " people are more important than

animals. " Animals feel pain and suffer just as we do, and it is

almost always humans making animals suffer and not the other way

around. Yet in spite of how cruelly people behave towards animals

-- not to mention human cruelty to other humans -- we are supposed to

believe that humans are superior to other animals. If people want

to fancy themselves as being of greater moral worth than the other

creatures on this earth, we should begin behaving better than they

do, and not worse. Let's start treating everyone as we would like

to be treated ourselves.