Put That Dog Meat Down!

These days it's getting harder and harder to find a good dog burger in some parts of Asia.  Taiwan has just banned the sale and consumption of cat and dog meat, a departure from most Asian country. Hmmmm Maybe Western culture is contaminating Asia to much. There are more than a few people barking at the new Taiwanese pooch policy. But Taiwan's legislature lifted its leg on those people and amended the Animal Protection Act to stop the eating of Fido. The new amendment imposes steeper fines and lengthier punishments for acts related to animal cruelty. These include a fine of  $1,600 to $8,000 for anyone caught selling or consuming cat and dog meat, or any other products that contain parts of the animals. The Taiwanese government will practice public shaming too by publicize the names and pictures of offenders.

Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen, adopted three retired guide dogs in October  and also has two cats. But dog meat is still popular in places like China, Laos, South Korea, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines and even in parts of India. China has a dog eating festival in the Yulin where thousands of dogs are slaughtered annually. But anyone who has been to Shanghai and seen the parade of small dogs, cutely groomed and pampered, knows that China has many dog lovers now. In recent years the Yulin festival has been bombarded with petitions and online campaigns against dog eating as being cruel.

In 2016, Chinese and international animal rights activists presented a petition with 11 million signatures to protest the dog meat festival. Protesters say many of the dogs were either stolen or found astray, crammed in small cages and beaten to death in slaughterhouses. Estimates are that China killed more than 10 million of the roughly 30 million dogs slaughtered every year worldwide, that according to Humane Society International. Four million cats are killed every year in the country. In South Korea, where dogs are farmed for human consumption, about 2 million are kept in about 17,000 facilities, and many are killed by electrocution, according to the organization. The government's attempts to put an end to it have been halfhearted.

But as western culture continues to be popular in Asia using dogs as food  has become  controversial and frowned on there. Dogs as pets are becoming the norm for many middle and upper class Chinese. There's other good news in Asia for Fido.  Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos struck a deal to stop the trafficking of dogs for their meat. Killing and selling dogs for meat has been banned in the capital, Manila, for more than 30 years.  In the Philippines a nationwide ban on eating dog meat was enacted in 1998.  Perhaps the ban in Taiwan will be the impetus to make Fido less tasty and more pet friendly. We in the west make distinctions from the chicken, beef, pork and lamb we munch on conscience free, and our pets. Dogs and cats are seen as more human like than as farm food.  That Asia is moving to that same perception shows the power of western culture to "consume" all others these days.