I won't be doing that, thanks.

Abstaining from eating meat for religious purposes was made up to comfort people who could not afford to eat meat often. Regardless of the religion. People feel much better when they believe they do it for their spiritual good rather than because they simply can’t buy meat whenever they would like to.

Re dogs. In the past (and likely true in the present somewhere) dog meat was used to cure tuberculosis. So its nutritional value must be high. I would not eat dog meat in normal circumstances. Only if there is no choice and I am super hungry to be picky.

After you have closed the dog meat slaughterhouses, I suggest get people to round up stray dogs and euthanise them.

explorer wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:10 pm After you have closed the dog meat slaughterhouses, I suggest get people to round up stray dogs and euthanise them.

Well in my experience the very badly-behaved dogs that bite neighbors who demand compensation end up sold by their owners to these restaurants. If you know Khmer you would understand this. People who don't understand the local mores often assume that the dogs are all stolen pets. Some are, most are not. Most Cambodians do not keep pets, they keep animals. They keep animals for practical reasons. A dog for example is not a thing to be petted and preened. It has a basic purpose, to guard the perimeter and kill vermin. For this it is thrown some scraps, there is no cuddling. If you coddle it too much it will lose its functionality. Some of the dogs here are descended from the French settler's poodles. They are horrible creatures and their long fur is not suited to the climate so they can easily become infested with lice, ticks etc. They are small though so make excellent ratters. The more indigenous dogs resemble Dingos and have short hair. Some breeds such as Thai Ridgebacks are particularly skilled at killing cobras. These dogs do not really make good pets, they have too many wild characteristics. In the capital imported pedigree dogs are popular. My next door neighbor bought a Husky last year, I think that's a ridiculous dog to have in this climate. All they can do is lay around panting, they can never really get used to the climate or culture.

Dog, Horse, Cow, Camel, Llama, Snake, Alligator/Crocodile, Mutton/Lamb, Pigeon, Pheasant, Rabbit, Grouse, Venison, etc, etc. It's all good! Depends on your personal preferences. If you are a tad touchy, a Brazilian BBQ might not be for you...

xandreu wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 8:59 pm

Nicolas wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 6:53 pm

xandreu wrote:

explorer wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 5:12 pm Is slaughtering dogs worse then slaughtering other animals, like pigs or chickens?

I'd say so, yes. There's a unique bond between humans and dogs that doesn't exist in other animals. Although dogs are clearly animals as much as cows and pigs are, we don't generally keep cows and pigs as pets.

Eating a dog feels a bit too close to eating another human, emotionally speaking.

Where do you draw the line?

Just before dogs. Anything else really would seem hypocritical. But I don't think it's hypocritical to draw the line at dogs. There's an unspoken contract between people and dogs. When they decided to domesticate themselves (many people assume we domesticated them, but the evidence points towards them domesticating themselves) they turned their backs on living in the wild and devoted themselves to us. They'll work for us, protect us, entertain us, cheer us up when we're down, love us unconditionally, help us to live a normal life if we're blind, even detect when we've got cancer - and in return they just want us to take care of them.

Seems like a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. To break that contract just feels wrong on so many levels.

Xandreu you would enjoy this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_(novel)
if you didn't already. Great book. Our best current French writer (Houellebecq) calls it a masterpiece.

xandreu wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 6:16 pm ....

I'd say so, yes. There's a unique bond between humans and dogs that doesn't exist in other animals. Although dogs are clearly animals as much as cows and pigs are, we don't generally keep cows and pigs as pets.

Eating a dog feels a bit too close to eating another human, emotionally speaking.

Anecdotal. Not really a good reason.

For some reason the locals say eating dog gives you a hard-on

I was dubious, as ever...

Several slices later.....

Yeah the fad for Huskys over here is ridiculous.

I love dogs but I can see why people eat them here (and treat them like animals rather than pets) when all you see are these packs of mutts wandering about like a gang of hoodies roaming the projects shitting and fucking all over the place. There is some little twat on my road that chases me on my motorbike most mornings. I wouldn't hesitate to kill it given the chance. And if I was poor and hungry I would then eat it.

Smoking Joe Conrad wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 8:12 am Yeah the fad for Huskys over here is ridiculous.

I love dogs but I can see why people eat them here (and treat them like animals rather than pets) when all you see are these packs of mutts wandering about like a gang of hoodies roaming the projects shitting and fucking all over the place. There is some little twat on my road that chases me on my motorbike most mornings. I wouldn't hesitate to kill it given the chance. And if I was poor and hungry I would then eat it.

I agree that this fad is pathetic and sad, I've never seen a happy husky here, they all look sad and they also need lots of exercise, which they never get, so just sit around at peoples homes. I have also seen them getting shaved which really ruins their coats.

However, I think the worst is seeing American Pitbulls for sale here. They look cute as pups but require a lot of training, discipline and correction, exercise and to know who the master/pack leader is. Totally unsuitable for the way 99% of Khmers would treat them i.e. slapping them about and not taking care of them or being too soft on them.A disaster waiting to happen, especially if they get out spreading their oats with some local street dogs.....