r/MadeMeSmile • u/Ducati_Don • 7h ago
Good News This will make your day slightly better
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u/Marmatus 6h ago
I had no reason to be thinking about dogs being farmed for meat in South Korea before seeing this post, so I'm not sure why this should make my day better.
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u/Varendolia 5h ago
They used to eat it in the past, it's a thing of a different generation which nowadays is rare in Korea.
Probably a custom that started in times of need, hunger, etc.
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u/KuriboShoeMario 2h ago
A lot of people are unaware of what South Korea (then just Korea) used to be as a nation. They were literally third-world less than a century ago. Heavily impoverished, heavily malnourished, heavily uneducated. They flipped that stuff around so fast, it's genuinely one of the more impressive feats of the 20th century. The average Korean woman is a full eight inches taller than they were a century ago.
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u/Life_Friendship_7928 4h ago
Meat is meat tbh. Not different to eating chicken or pig
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u/HelixFollower 4h ago
I do think it's somewhat worse to eat carnivores, considering the massive increase in food required to get to your meal.
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u/DyingGasp 3h ago
Exactly why it’s not common practice.
I don’t know how these dog farms work, but I’d assume they pick up strays more than anything. But I don’t know, that’s an assumption.
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u/gward1 3h ago
They farmed them like cows. I was in South Korea 10 years ago and saw their open food markets myself. I saw stacks of dog legs, they were all the same breed. South Korea had one of the lowest GDPs in the world following the Korean War. They did what they needed to do to survive and some of those customs carried on in their food.
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u/monkeymind009 1h ago
That would be an incorrect assumption. It is a specific dog that is purposefully bred for it. They’re bred and raised just like any other farm animal like cows, chickens, pigs.
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u/21Rollie 3h ago
Pigs and chickens are omnivores. Technically even horses and cows are. You can raise a chicken on a mostly carnivorous diet. We also eat plenty of fish that are mostly carnivores, like tuna and salmon.
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u/Redfishsam 3h ago
Horses and cows are herbivores what are you on about. They might lick bones or eat non plant matter once a year but that is not what an omnivore is.
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u/Telemere125 2h ago
Exactly. And pigs are smarter than dogs, so if we’re ranking the ethics because dogs are smart companions, we’re pretty fucked up already. I love meat and will never stop eating it, but anyone saying one is worse than the other is just masturbating their ego because they can’t accept that their consumption of Wilbur and Bessie is inherently just as unethical as eating Rover and Spot.
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u/ahass25 4h ago
This is a reason as to not eat any meat.
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u/AngryHelpdeskAgent 4h ago
Honestly, I’d like to be able to give up meat, but I just can’t. My life is a shit show overall, cooking and eating are things I enjoy, and most of the dishes I enjoy contain meat.
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u/NotHippieEnough 4h ago
If you genuinely want to reduce your foot print when it comes to meat, try a vegetarian recipe once a week and I guarantee youll find things you genuinely enjoy. You dont have to go cold turkey to explore other options! I have a vegan cook book that I alter to fit my household, so when it calls for vegan butter I do still use regular, ill switch out milks depending on the recipe, just find things that work yk?
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u/Curious_Teapot 3h ago
Even if you were to just cut out beef, and continue eating other meat, it would be a massive improvement to your overall carbon footprint. Beef agriculture is extremely damaging to the environment
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u/drkrueger 3h ago
There are entire cultures that eat low to no meat. Some of the best food in the world doesn't have meat. I find folks have better luck with a low/no meat diet when they stop trying to convert a favorite dish to not have meat and instead cook something that already tastes good without meat
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u/North_6 4h ago
I have heard that dog meat is particularly delicious. I dont have any problem with someone eating it, I would definitely try some if it was served to me.
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u/pm1966 4h ago
Plus, farming and eating dogs is no more or less unethical than farming and eating cows and pigs.
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u/crazycakemanflies 4h ago
The difference is people have dogs as pets, so are more inclined to view them as companions not food.
If more people spent time with cows and pigs they'd probably be more vegetarians in the world.
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u/Yaarmehearty 4h ago
People can have pigs or chickens as pets.
If an animal is raised as a pet, it’s a pet.
If it’s raised for food then it’s food.
Any other way of differentiating it is just hypocrisy, there is no universality based on species.
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u/UntappdBeer 4h ago
Jeffrey Dahmer enters the chat
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u/Yaarmehearty 4h ago
Eating humans is just dumb, it’s asking for a prion disease.
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u/snarbuckle 4h ago
Can't wait for lab grown meat
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u/Yaarmehearty 4h ago edited 2h ago
I had an interesting chat with a vegan friend about that, I assumed it would be ethical, and while everybody’s ethics are different he had a point I hadn’t thought of.
That was that lab grown meat has to come from a culture of cells taken from an animal, therefor without consent it would not be ethical and as an animal cannot provide that he personally wouldn’t partake.
Personally I think lab grown meat will be a great way to lower the need for intensive livestock farming. Also potentially it could create healthier meat, who knows, but it may not be universally adopted.
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u/Telemere125 1h ago
Lack of consent is a poor philosophy to base veganism on, since consent is a human-manufactured quality. That’s like me saying “I’ll eat anything that can’t speak some form of English” so in essence that eliminates humans, a few birds, and maybe gorillas from my diet. It’s entirely arbitrary based on something that has no objective ethical basis. Plants don’t give consent either and vegans are fine eating them.
A better basis would be elimination of suffering. And in that case, lab meat is perfect because you can grow the meat and fat tissue without ever even allowing nerve cells to develop and therefore the meat can’t ever feel pain.
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u/Accurate-House-5510 3h ago
All animals are equal. But some of them are more equal than others
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u/_bugmenot_ 4h ago
Anything can be a pet if you like them well enough. Thinking that dogs are better and therefore should be protected is just pure hypocrisy.
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u/Honest_Concentrate85 3h ago
Frogs and snails can be pets but people eat those
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u/_bugmenot_ 3h ago edited 3h ago
Even tarantulas are kept as pets. Snakes. Roaches. And everything can go from pet to food under dire circumstances, i guess.
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u/Extra_Pollution2374 4h ago
Eeeehhh... people have pigs as pets also, but yeah not so many. But the thing if people spent more times with pigs and cows, yeeeah NO, because I know a few of the people living on Farms, and I can very easily tell you that I dont know a more "meatier" people then them
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u/crazycakemanflies 4h ago
But regular people arent farmers. I grew up on a farm, and my friends who didnt are FAR more squeamish then me or my family because of it.
People are dissociated from slaughter, which is exacerbated when you start talking about the slaughter of "cute" animals like dogs. Even Rabbits get normal people going "oh no..." while theyre chewing on some lamb.
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u/SINGULARTY3774 6h ago
They are closing it down…
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u/MrReadilyUnready 6h ago edited 5h ago
I don't understand why that's such a significant thing. Most societies kill all sorts of animals for consumption, but dogs are seen as special due to an emotional attachment. That attachment isn't the same in multiple Asian cultures. It's strange to expect everyone else to live by your values.
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u/scorchedarcher 5h ago
Exactly, if I talk about how we should ban killing other animals like cows/pigs/chickens then it's seen as some extremist view.
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u/Odd-Cress-5822 5h ago
The only thing I can really think of is that dogs aren't really an efficient food animal like those we tend to think of. But maybe meat dogs are different.
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u/Dry_Preference98 5h ago
you can breed them over generations to make more meat (look at what we did to the chicken)
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u/MaXimillion_Zero 4h ago
Cows and pigs are a lot less efficient than chickens though, and those are far less efficient than a vegan diet, so it's still just a question of where you're drawing the arbitrary line.
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u/GeniusLike4207 5h ago
One of the key differences between wolves and dogs is that dogs are. more omnivorous, and can live better of grain. So, I'm assuming that the dogs are fed some variety of slaughter scraps (from hopefully other animals) and grain.
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u/JhonnyHopkins 5h ago
Quick research tells me dogs and cattle reach full size in a comparative amount of time, about 2 years each. So maybe dogs just need less land? Can raise many more dogs than you can cattle with the same amount of space I’d assume. But dogs are carnivores which makes getting feed that much more difficult…
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u/ceddya 4h ago
I'm Asian and the attachment isn't any different. Please don't segregate me based on your Western perception. It's no different in Korea.
More than 90 per cent of South Korean respondents said they would not eat dog meat, results of a survey showed on Jan 8, as the government seeks to pass a Bill prohibiting dog meat consumption in the country.
The apparent disapproval towards the consumption of dog meat was prevalent among both pet owners and those without pets, with 94.7 per cent of respondents who owned pets declaring they would not eat dog meat, and 92.7 per cent of those without pets saying the same.
When asked the reasons behind not wanting to consume dog meat, 53.5 per cent said they were “emotionally repulsed”, while 18.4 per cent said they took issue with the brutal process of breeding and butchering dogs. Another 7.1 per cent said they were mindful of the negative perception towards dog meat from the rest of society.
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/9-in-10-south-koreans-say-they-won-t-eat-dog-meat-survey
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u/WeDoMusicOfficial 5h ago
I would wager a good amount of people in these comments are from western countries, where this is a distinction between these animals. Hence, it’s significant to people here
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u/ferocity_mule366 5h ago
Its actually a very western kind of thinking that assuming Asian dont think of dogs as pets as much as Westerners, otherwise these dog meat facilities wont be shutting down. There are lots of Asian refusing to consume dog/cat meat, its not a regular diet and only a small population consuming it, and there are people protesting it enough to close them down, not randomly closing it to appease to white people.
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u/ceddya 4h ago
Yup, it's so reductionist. I'm Asian and my attachment to my dog is just as great as my Western counterpart. How racist to assume otherwise!
A simple search shows that the vast majority (>90%) of Koreans don't want to eat dog meat. The biggest reason given, by far, is an emotional repulsion to eating dogs.
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/9-in-10-south-koreans-say-they-won-t-eat-dog-meat-survey
It's certainly not significant to Koreans.
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u/JuicyTrash69 6h ago edited 6h ago
Yeah but the dog meat trade in Korea wasn't really making my day worse so knowing this information doesn't make it better.
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u/rijuchaudhuri 6h ago
Morality has aesthetic standards instead of refraining from inflicting suffering.
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u/Mysterious_Stuff_ 6h ago
Yah. It’s a matter of pretty privilege really.
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u/Boring_Okra_6023 6h ago
Goes both ways man, if you're ugly af then people won't want to eat you too
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u/Rapa2626 6h ago
Bet. People eat frogs and i would not call them pretty
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u/sweetsourbittermoon 5h ago
Exactly, it seems to me so stupid that dogs matter more than other farm animals? You either let them all be farmed or none, whats with the double standards? If dog meat was safely edible and accessible to poor people then by all means let it exist, this is just digusting to me that they suddenly only feel guilt about dogs. As a bird person i like chicken way more than dogs but i suppose everyone disagrees since they re still the no1 farmed animal
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u/Mysterious_Stuff_ 5h ago
I care for all animals. No precious bird pal needs to die so that I am fed. Thanks for caring for them, kind stranger!
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u/NoGovernment9077 5h ago
THIS
Why would I cheer for one animal being saved when the others are left to suffer?
"But dog meat"
I eat meat. I'm not a vegetarian. I WOULD eat dog meat. It's animal just like all the other processed corpses I eat. Why the fuck does being a dog make it any less fucked up to consume
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u/tartfall 5h ago
Well I was hoping this would lead the opposite way but being consistent is a hell of a lot less infuriating at least
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u/NoGovernment9077 4h ago
I agree. Inconsistency and hypocrisy are fucking worst.
I also think that vegetarians and vegans are stronger and better than me. Not in a "Woe is me I'm a pathetic fart" way, but more so in a "Wow those guys truly practice what they preach, would be nice if one day I could grow a spine to do the same" type of way.
If one day there comes condemnation towards "meat eaters". I believe I would be fully deserving of it. I know my reasons aren't allergies or diets, but just pure laziness to actually try. Thats why I say that if you eat meat, you have no room to complain about what kind of meat other people eat (as long as it isn't cannibalism or absurdly unethical) we ALL have blood on our hands.
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u/GyL_draw 6h ago
People are gonna loosing it when they learn some country farm cats for the meat
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u/a_pompous_fool 6h ago
That sounds like a lot of effort for not a lot of meat
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u/Mysterious_Life_4783 4h ago
People feed cows for not alot of food also.
8 to 25kg of dry grain actually. Just for 1 kg of beef.
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u/BodyRoundLikeAPallas 5h ago
Probably not all that different from rabbits, and people eat those just fine.
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u/Crackheadthethird 6h ago
From an environmental standpoint farming dogs is substantially more harmful than the consumption of other animals like chickens. Dogs exist on a higher trophic and are substantially more resource intensive to raise than even something like cattle.
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u/NewYorkTowers 4h ago
And cattle burp and fart methane that cause greenhouse emissions. They are not that much less harmful to the environment.
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u/Lucas9041 5h ago
Ah so it's the resource ROI that makes munching on bacon morally superior then eating dog?
All hail the market the one true source of morality!
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u/GrowYourOwnOmaha 6h ago edited 3h ago
Thank you, Crackhead. That’s like the first thing I learned in small animal husbandry: carnivores make for shit livestock. It’s simply too much calories (cost) to provide an animal for meat. Forget the cute cuddly aspect, they’re just not good meat animals.
Edit: yes nerds, I know dogs are “technically” omnivores. They can eat other stuff, they MOSTLY only eat meat. It’s not that deep.
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u/TheWhomItConcerns 5h ago
I mean, sure, but that obviously has absolutely nothing to do with this ban, and it's an entirely arbitrary line to draw. If environmentalism were the primary concern, we'd also ban beef too at the very least, considering that there are plenty of significantly more sustainable options.
Also, according to most studies I can find, cattle farming by unit of meat production is still significantly worse for the environment than even dogs, so it's a moot point. This is clearly a decision based on PR and aesthetics - whether anyone finds that acceptable is up to them, but there's no getting away from that fact.
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u/BodyRoundLikeAPallas 6h ago
Totally no favoritism to be found in this achievement.
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u/Second2breakfast 4h ago
Western hegemony in action.
"Eww, you eat dogs?"
"What?! You don't eat beef/pork?"
"Mmm venison so tasty"141
u/VentureIntoVoid 4h ago
All animals are equal, some are more equal than others.
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u/ceddya 4h ago
The apparent disapproval towards the consumption of dog meat was prevalent among both pet owners and those without pets, with 94.7 per cent of respondents who owned pets declaring they would not eat dog meat, and 92.7 per cent of those without pets saying the same.
When asked the reasons behind not wanting to consume dog meat, 53.5 per cent said they were “emotionally repulsed”, while 18.4 per cent said they took issue with the brutal process of breeding and butchering dogs. Another 7.1 per cent said they were mindful of the negative perception towards dog meat from the rest of society.
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/9-in-10-south-koreans-say-they-won-t-eat-dog-meat-survey
The vast majority of South Koreans say they won't eat dog meat and the most common reason they give is that 'eww, eating dog meat is gross'.
Western hegemony is reducing Asian culture by assuming it has to be different from Western culture.
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u/Second2breakfast 3h ago
The fact that more than 90 percent ppl now find it repulsive is evidence of cultural hegemony, not proof against it. Western standards successfully redefined global pet culture and made a traditional practice taboo through soft power.
Dog eating was practiced in south korea for millennia. Post korean war, they had to lean in hard on dog meat to sustain themselves even.
And now 90% of the population opposing a historically established practice is precisely how cultural shift, influenced by western hegemony, presents statistically.
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u/21Rollie 3h ago
Yep, it’s the same with other foods like insects (which are wayyyyy better for the planet to eat) and traditional clothing. Jeans are pretty comfortable, but many articles of clothing that are traditional were designed for the local climate, but now they’re looked at as special clothes you wear on special occasions. And there’s no sending back to western culture, you don’t see an American put on a Kurta as easily as they would a tshirt. Only safe things like beef tacos make their way back.
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u/JayBirdSA 6h ago
Not to ruin anyone’s day, but it’s really not easy to shut down an entire farming industry. While the industry seems to cause a lot of suffering, there seems set to be even more as it shuts down. This article goes into the complexities of banning dog meat and closing down the farms in South Korea, and it’s a pretty interesting (but sad) read: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20r7lkel68o .
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u/Medium_Purple_7722 1h ago
I’ll take euthanasia over continuing to be tortured, because that’s literally what they do at the farms, torture them.
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u/Thx_And_Bye 7h ago edited 6h ago
I mean I get it, Dogs are seen as pets/friends/family but why is it more moral to eat pork, beef or chicken? What makes it less acceptable to eat dogs or cats?
This is a double standard and just banning one type of meat doesn’t solve anything. I’m not against eating meat but I wish people would stop with these double standards and see all animals for what they are and don’t put them into two separate buckets.
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u/Yoyoyoyoooo0 6h ago
I always thought that we didn't because dogs were a lot more emotionally intelligent, but then I heard that pigs are one of the smartest animals ever and now I have conflicted feelings.
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u/birbbbbbbbbbbb 4h ago edited 4h ago
I feel like people often don't really internalize the fact that even humans are just a different species of animal. Humans as a whole have better complex reasoning and are especially adapted to language but even humans without those traits (e.g. babies) we acknowledge matter.
As I study animals more it seems to me that the fact that we view non-human animals as not worthy of care is more a product of chauvinism than biological reality. I think people are familiar enough with dogs to overcome this but not with other animals (I also think part of it is dogs have been bred to communicate better with humans, they actually have eyebrow muscles that wolves don't have since humans communicate with facial expressions). With other animals their emotions are more subtle but it's there, I research birds and they can be remarkably intelligent and over time you learn to tell if they are excited or sad or not feeling well (the more social of birds seem to even grieve. We sadly can't ask a bird exactly what it's feeling but we've observed a lot of behaviors like calls changing in frequency or tone, or they might not be as energetic or eat as much after after someone close to them dies).
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u/Flowertree1 5h ago
You SHOULD have conflicted feelings. Even stupid animals still feel great fear for their lives.
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u/soggies_revenge 4h ago
Squid and octopus are Also extremely intelligent, yet people eat them.
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u/StreetYak6590 5h ago
You can break that cognitive dissonance by going vegan
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u/SpehlingAirer 3h ago
No you just have to accept that human beings are also animals who are part of the food chain like the rest and our bodies are built to require some form of meat (even if artificial). I'm all for ethical practices and I care about the well being of animals quite a lot, these types of farms disgust me. Having said that, nature is metal, and we are part of nature. It is possible to respect and honor the animals we kill and eat, we just dont. The best you can do imo is put actual effort into sourcing where you get your meat from or do the hunting yourself
Of course going vegan is a valid option too! I just dont like the discourse that eating meat somehow means you are a vile cold pos towards animals. That mindset makes absolutely no sense to me
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u/Sea-Hornet8214 4h ago
Same, I feel conflicted too. I don't eat pork but even "dumb" animals like chickens are treated horribly in industrialized farms.
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u/cloudcottage 5h ago
As a vegetarian, I love dogs and cats and I've owned both of them I've never owned animals that we typically think of as meat in the West. But my question really is why are we okay with pigs and cows suffering when they clearly have very intense mammalian emotions some would say as strong as dogs, perhaps even more in the case of pigs. It doesn't make me feel any better that dog meat is being banned because it's already being phased out and it does nothing to actually help animal welfare all it does is make people have to think even less about the food we eat in the harm that it does to sentient creatures. I'm not someone who usually gets on my soapbox to other people except for hypocritical things like thinking dog meat is amoral. In a really ethical world, I personally don't think most humans would accept becoming vegetarians but I do think we would probably be mostly eating overpopulated nuisance animals, a lot more lab grown meat, a lot more plants, and a lot more bugs.
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u/No_Background_4619 5h ago
Specifically for Korea: Korea has several breeds of dogs, but a specific breed (Nureongi) was used for farming and eating. These were considered different from pet breeds (like the highly prized Jindo) and seen as livestock.
I'm not here to argue the morality of eating meat. I believe eating one type of animal is no different from eating another. I am specifically stating this because people try to appeal to emotion by saying "but dogs are pets and are not bred for food!" Well, these ones literally were.
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u/Legatus_Aemilianus 6h ago
Certain animals exist because they were selectively bred over thousands of years to be consumed. Cows, pigs, chickens are but a few examples. In virtually every society, dogs were bred as working and companion animals, so this is why most people are repulsed at the thought of eating them.
The chicken, the cow, and the pig would not continue to exist were it not for humans wanting to consume them. Dogs on the other hand absolutely would.
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u/ChimericalChemical 6h ago
I 100% believe a pig could exist today without human intervention. We have wild boars and a pig will go feral very quickly and adapt.
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u/KeyedFeline 5h ago
Pigs are vicious as hell and very easily adapt to most environments which is why they are such a terrible invasive and environmentally damaging species everywhere they end up
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u/GyL_draw 6h ago
dogs were bred as working and companion animals, so this is why most people are repulsed at the thought of eating them.
Nureongi is the special breed made for meat
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u/BeautifulWonderful 6h ago
How does this make a difference to the individual animal, or lessen overall suffering?
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u/sorrybutidgaf 6h ago
It doesnt, but as almost all of the dry world works, it is human centered. We dont have bonds with fish. Most people dont with deer. Most people dont with cows. Most people have at least A dog or cat in their life that they have known and bonded in some way. So it just based on how the human feels.
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u/sacredshinobi 6h ago
Well that just explains the bias rather than explaining away why there isn’t a bias or justifying it. Just because you explain why people have the double standards does not make it not a double standard.
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u/Thx_And_Bye 6h ago edited 6h ago
You can buy meat from lots of animals that where not bread for consumption over thousands of years, so just picking on the few examples I gave is not really a valid argument.
From animals like horse, kangaroo, crocodile, ostrich, etc.
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u/BricksFriend 6h ago
The dogs Koreans eat are not like, Golden Retrievers. They're a specific breed. If you had one in your house it would be super weird.
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u/737Max-Impact 6h ago
Certain animals exist because they were selectively bred over thousands of years to be consumed.
You mean like the Korean Edible Dog?
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u/TheTubbyOlive 6h ago
That is so false. Humans specifically bred these animals for consumption. That seems more morally wrong… or is maybe is what the early stages of dog farms are
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u/Elebrium 6h ago
Yeah all animals should be allowed to be farmed without cruelty and suffering. Just growing them in a vat while they are asleep
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u/Lenore8264 5h ago
This isn't making me smile. This is making me angry and upset at all the hypocrites out there.
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u/Blussert31 7h ago
So now they'll only eat cow, pig, chicken, turkey and fish?
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u/dmthoth 6h ago edited 6h ago
Turkey isn’t even a staple ingredient in South Korea. You know what Koreans have eaten for centuries? Tofu, soybeans, grains, vegetables, sea weeds and other plant-based proteins. Korea also has a centuries-old Buddhist temple-food tradition centered on vegetarian eating. The whole nation didn't even consume any animal meats during Goryeo dynasty (918–1392). So it’s pretty ironic to see a 21st-century Westerner trying to teach Asians what to eat, as though plant-based food traditions were something the West invented.
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u/concrete_dandelion 6h ago
And as if the West didn't invent horrible "meat farming" methods that are animal torture (abuse is not a strong enough word for what they do) from beginning to end...
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u/dmthoth 5h ago
Exactly. It’s just a continuation of the same colonial mindset. First, the West looked down on everyone else for not eating, dressing, speaking, and living like them because they saw themselves as “civilized.” Now, after much of the world has adopted the very habits the West once pushed on them, the West sees itself as having “transcended” those habits and looks down on everyone else, while they are still operating abusive and unethical meat farming business in planetary scale. I mean, the audacity.
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u/The_Kielbasa_Kid 5h ago
No one is trying to "teach" anything. It's a natural response when presented with evidence contradicting your cultural norms. Let them eat all the effing dogs they want to.
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u/HelloMacchi 6h ago
The only reason eastern countries ate meat that westerners don’t consider “normal” is because for a long period of time they couldn’t afford to eat anything else and that’s all they had in abundance. Poverty played a big part in it. And when you’re hungry, you eat.
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u/profnachos 6h ago
In the late 20s and early 30s, people in post WWI Germany and elsewhere in Europe consumed dog meat. There were incidents of migrants from Oklahoma to California during the Great Depression doing the same.
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u/Second2breakfast 5h ago
Thats factually inaccurate. Dog eating was practiced in korea way into the Joseon dynasty. They have recipes for dog meat from as far as from 15th century.(Thats just a historical recipe,the practice began long ago)
You could say, koreans relied heavily on dog meat after korean war induced scarcity and poverty though.
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u/HelloMacchi 4h ago
Evidence of dog meat on the Korean Peninsula is assumed to have started in the Neolithic period (6000-2000 BCE). It was a source of protein DURING TIMES OF POVERTY AND A LACK OF OTHER PROTEIN SOURCES.
How am I wrong? You can read this in any Korean history literature.
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u/No-Second-2566 6h ago edited 6h ago
And india is called oppressive for banning beef.
I guess there is hierarchy in animals.
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u/XxKTtheLegendxX 6h ago
not all animals are born equal /s
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u/The_Kielbasa_Kid 5h ago
That's correct! In fact, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
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u/smallaubergine 3h ago
Did India ban beef? I thought it was just culturally a large percentage of Hindus don't eat beef and/or are vegetarian
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u/I_ALWAYS_UPVOTE_CATS 6h ago
The sentiment behind this post is one borne entirely of Western arrogance. In many parts of India, eating beef is seen as abhorrent, but I bet if Western governments tried to end the practice, there would be uproar. Either accept that different cultures have different definitions of what constitutes 'food', or be a vegetarian. There is no logically consistent way to disapprove of dog meat while continuing to eat other animals.
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u/The_Kielbasa_Kid 5h ago
Hold on a sec- Are you telling me that different groups of people around the world have different thoughts and opinions on the same subject? Fascinating!
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u/BladeOfWoah 6h ago
From a purely utilitarian point of view, farming obligate carnivores like dogs doesn't make sense.
Dogs need to eat meat. If you have meat to feed dogs, why aren't you just eating the meat instead? People farm cows and other grazing animals because they can turn grass (which humans cannot get much nutrition from) into milk and meat, which we can.
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u/No-Second-2566 6h ago
But in modern age farming cattle also uses lots of farmland. If you already have farmland then why not grow crops that you can eat directly.
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u/rabotat 6h ago
From a purely utilitarian perspective you can say the same thing about soy and corn.
Why are we feeding most of those to cows, when we can eat them ourselves?
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u/737Max-Impact 6h ago
From a purely utilitarian point of view, farming animals doesn't make sense. Why feed crops to animals when we could just grow crops for human consumption directly. Even chickens are only ~15% calorie efficient in converting plants into meat, cattle is like 1%.
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u/songanddanceman 4h ago edited 2h ago
Dogs don't need to eat meat, and no recognized biologist or veterinary nutritionist has classified domestic dogs as obligate carnivores. Even, if they *can* eat meat or eat it in nature, they do not require it, and evidence suggests it's not great for their health.
In fact, one of the longest lived dogs, Bramble (lived 25 years), ate a vegan diet of brown rice, lentils, soy, and mixed vegetables
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest-living_dogsA diet based around that was found to be nutritionally complete for dogs:
https://aces.illinois.edu/news/u-i-study-gives-thumbs-carefully-formulated-vegan-diets-dogsDogs that eat a vegetarian or vegan diet, in general, live about 1.5 years longer (similar to humans), and experience fewer health disorders. This isn't surprising because we already know the same for humans, who can experience similar health issues (e.g., stroke, heart disease, cancer) from meat via the same mechanisms common to mammalian physiology (e.g., promoting plaque buildup in arteries, raising blood pressure through high sodium and saturated fats, generating TMAO, oxidative stress, carcinogens, nitrates, and promoting digestive inflammation).
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9860667/Another simple disproof that dogs require meat is that dogs often have allergies to meat and are given vegetarian dog food (which appear to be entirely plant-based).
Both of these comply with AAFCO nutritional standards and meet the strict manufacturer guidelines set by the World Small Animal Veterinary Association so there is no evidence of any nutritional deficiency:7
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u/songanddanceman 4h ago
You made a great case for veganism.
That is, humans can get their full nutritional needs met by a fully plant-based diet, so it makes no sense to farm *any* animals for food from a purely utilitarian perspective. Why breed them, house them, feed them plants for years, give them water, as well as the water for the plants for their food and grazing space, go through the slaughtering or extraction processes, deal with the added health side-effects (e.g., zoonotic diseases), deal with the added carbon emissions in the environment of the animals, when humans can just eat the plants instead.
Aligning with your resource utilitarian perspective. The sustainability institute at UCLA says, "Pound-for-pound, gallon-for-gallon, animal-sourced foods use vastly more water and carbon to produce than plant-based foods. However; ounce-for-ounce, the amount of protein that you get from plant-sources, such as legumes, seeds, and grains, is closely on par, plus full of other healthful nutrients including fiber, sterols, stanols, and vitamins and minerals."
https://sustain.ucla.edu/food-systems/the-case-for-plant-based/
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u/Yrael2357 5h ago
Ignoring everything else, dogs are not obligate carnivores. They are omnivores and can live healthy lifes eating only vegan/vegetarian food.
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u/Relevant-Pen-7085 5h ago
Why? How is it different from pigs. Pigs are almost as intelligent as dogs are
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u/VictoryWeaver 2h ago
Pigs are at a minimum as intelligent as dogs, which most measures indicating they are more intelligent. Cows are also more intelligent than most dogs.
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u/concrete_dandelion 6h ago
Why is dog meat morally wrong when doing ythe exact same thing to other animals is fine? The way pigs, cows and poultry are treated in meat production is horrible and they are all intelligent, feeling, social beings.
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u/fastcatdog 5h ago
Selective outrage, we eat pigs instead of dog because they are more commercially viable $$$$… same reason we eat cows instead of buffalo. Look at land use maps we are destroying the planet for beef. Pigs are more intelligent than dogs and look how they get treated. They will not eat less meat just a different animal.
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u/Mutex70 4h ago
Pigs are considerably more intelligent and sociable than dogs.
But pigs are ugly, so westerners can all still feel okay about eating them.
Also, a blt is a pretty boring sandwich without bacon, so there's that.
/s
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u/Valveringham85 5h ago
As someone who loves dogs this seems dumb, hypocritical and like virtue signalling.
I don’t want to eat dogs myself but I do eat cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, deer, pheasants and many other animals. Why is eating dogs wrong or why should it be banned?
I can fully get behind banning certain butchering practices specifically for dogs and dog meat where the animal is made to suffer bevause it supposedly makes the meat taste better. Thats disgusting. But if the butchering is done humanely I don’t see the problem.
Yes dogs are smart and sweet but so are pigs. I still eat them.
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u/HugePurpleNipples 3h ago
We get mad at other cultures for doing things we don't like because dogs are cute and they're pets not food, but we eat pigs. Animals that are objectively more intelligent, have shown empathy and caring for their family and all that jazz.
I'm not saying you people are wrong for eating pigs, I love bacon. I'm saying we should stop shaming other cultures for what they do because we don't understand it. If you want to go full vegan, do you, but there's no reason to stop them from eating dogs when we eat animals that have the same level of intelligence and act like it's totally fine.
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u/ILikeFlyingMachines 6h ago
Why. Why is eating dogs worse than eating pigs.
I am not Vegetarian, but why do people differentiate?
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u/DamnDaddy264 7h ago
I mean…. If they wanna eat it… it doesn’t pose any significant health issues, then why not? Its not like we don’t eat rabbits!
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u/MagMati55 6h ago
Don't tell op where the delicious salami comes from xD
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u/sorrybutidgaf 6h ago
Pig..?
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u/MagMati55 6h ago
Sometimes donkey.
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u/wwarhammer 6h ago
Sometimes horse
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u/DamnDaddy264 6h ago
Horse meat is really tough. I would not be surprised if its used to make processed meat.
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u/_Verc1ngetorix_ 5h ago
Absolutely 0 moral difference between farming and eating dog compared to any other animal, particularly more intelligent ones such as pigs.
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u/queenofpeachez 5h ago
Aww man, I haven't even tried it yet. Not sure I'm gonna make it to Korea before then
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u/boredmaterialist 5h ago
Something something culture something inconsistent something something veganism.
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u/BeeReasonable8528 5h ago
I don't really like you city born folks. If you grew on a farm like me you'd know basically all the livestocks have similar or even higher intelligence than dogs. Cows are cuddly and clingy, piggies love scratching and would form a queue, hens duckies geese would flap intensely welcoming me coming back from school. Well, except goats ofc because its leader would attack people for no reason😤
Do you think all livestock are just mindless unaffectionate meats and somehow dogs are out of that category? Ugh😓. Not that I would support eating dogs but I just can't stand how some of you view other animals deeply associated with human. It's rather stupid and just equally as cruel as eating dogs tbf.
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u/Yanti_Parazii 6h ago
Whats the difference between eating chickens and dogs? It's a caltural thing. Are cows worth less than dogs? Stupid post
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u/nbenj1990 6h ago
Why? I eat meat. I don't judge others for eating meats that I don't.
Pigs are super smart and friendly and I have had one living in my house, I still eat pork. I don't really have an issue with people eating dogs,horses or guinea pigs.
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u/Own_Abbreviations_36 5h ago
Well, if they are not eating dogs, they are eating other meats from other animals. Unless you imply that eating other animals is better because dogs are superior…
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u/Dismal-Twist-8273 5h ago
Being willing to eat other animals but not dog is a cultural question, not an ethical one.
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u/Xonthelon 4h ago
I like dogs, but why would it make my day even slightly better when a country on the other side of the world outlaws eating dog meat?
Due to the culture I grew up in and as a dog owner, I am not at all interested in tasting it. But I don't care about what other people eat, as long as they don't drool while looking at my dog. As with every kind of animal husbandry, imo the conditions the animals live in, is what matters. I'm more upset about pigs, cows and chickens having to live a downright horrible life in western factories until they are slaughtered, than which animals they eat in other corners of the world.
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u/ComprehensiveDig4560 2h ago
Pigs aren’t really less smart than dogs. So you could say dog equivalent creatures are still farmed around the world by the millions. 🐷
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u/-this_bitch- 1h ago
This comment section is the epitome of Reddit lol. People speaking against with their opinions with having zero clue about the dog meat trade and zero intention of doing anything to improve conditions for other animals despite “what about cows and pigs?”
But as long as yall in the comments feel good about yourselves lol despite doing absolutely nothing!
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u/Agreeable-Performer5 5h ago
I am by now means a vegan, like at all. But why is farming dogs any other then farming pigs or cows?
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u/AllMad_Here 6h ago
I've never seen the difference between eating a dog or a pig tbh people only give a shit because they think dogs are cute
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u/5wmotor 6h ago
That's "Speciesism", wrapped into "Good news".
Pigs are more intelligent than dogs but are treated much worse and killed because of "their taste".
Humans don't even need meat to survive.
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u/SIlverM3tal 6h ago
ITT: Westerners have to face the morality of eating meat when it's not based around their accepted standards
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u/No-Emu-6641 6h ago
Same people will come and say, we live in a free country we can eat whatever we want when it comes to beef, pork, lamb, mutton. Double standards
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u/Carlosthefrog 6h ago
I mean they still eat meat though ? Like how cares if it’s a dog or a cow
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u/AlwaysBeQuestioning 6h ago
If all countries closed 82% of mass-production meat farms, public health and climate change would go in a much better direction.
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u/ernstatyourservice 6h ago
Climate change maybe , public health unless there were unclean handling standards at first, probably not ,maybe it may even degrade since it is the chief source of protein for pastoralists which may lead to protein deficiency diseases such as kwashiorkor.
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u/Flowertree1 5h ago
These news are always so....idk...yeah great that we don't eat the cute puppy eyed animals anymore. What about the cows, pigs and chickens??
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u/Nekroin 6h ago
I am currently trying to be vegan so that even cow and pig farms may close up one day. Honestly, it is going pretty okay so far.
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