FW: Dawnwatch: SF Chronicle column on the consumption of dogs and other animals -- 2/18/06

[Guest guest]

An article worth writing letters to the editor about, from DawnWatch....

 

 

DawnWatch [news]

Saturday, February 18, 2006 5:13 PM

Dawnwatch: SF Chronicle column on the consumption of dogs and other

animals -- 2/18/06

 

 

The Saturday, February 18, San Francisco Chronicle includes a thoughtful

piece by Lynette Evans, headed, " Dog food for thought. One person's pet is

another's dinner. "

 

It opens,

" I don't eat dogs or cats. If I kept chickens or ducks or rabbits as pets, I

probably wouldn't eat them, either. "

 

Evans points out that it is generally frowned upon or even illegal to eat

animals that are kept as pets in that society, but that the ideas about what

animals should be eaten are cultural. She notes that some societies have

proscriptions against eating pork, for example, while in America it is

accepted, even though " pigs score higher on their SATs than dogs ever will. "

 

Evans's piece is in response to the debate over eating dogs is in China,

" where dogs have become favorite pets as well as food, and where the

government is concerned about world opinion on such matters as it prepares

to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. "

 

She ends her piece with:

" The debate often centers on how dogs and cats that are raised for fur or as

food are treated. Humane treatment, whether of a dog or a cow or a chicken,

should go without saying -- but it is the 'orange' in an 'apples and

oranges'' discussion of the matter. It's not OK to mistreat animals --

whether they're raised as pets, working animals or food.

 

" There is a legitimate discussion about whether it's OK to raise or kill any

animal for food, one that has been debated for centuries, in and out of

religious parameters. But, in a meat-eating society, which the United States

still is, it seems a little hypocritical, if not downright xenophobic, to

decry another culture's decision to eat dog while tucking into a Honeybaked

Ham. "

 

Indeed, the treatment of dogs raised for food in China is horrendous and

cannot be condoned, but then so is treatment of pigs in America (see

www.factoryfarming.com). And birds, over 90% of the animals raised for food

in America, are not even covered under humane slaughter laws. Evans'

thoughtful piece opens the door for letters to the editor about those

issues.

 

You can read the full piece on line at

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/18/HOG3SH84VG1.DTL

OR http://tinyurl.com/clhkp

 

And you can send a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle at

letters and advises, " Please limit your letters to 200 or

fewer words ... shorter letters have a better chance of being selected for

publication. "

 

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when

sending a letter to the editor.

 

Yours and the animals',

Karen Dawn

 

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in

the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets.

You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at

http://www.DawnWatch.com. To , go to

http://www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_.cgi If you

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nora

 

Sat Feb 18 18:11:21 2006