Which asians eat dog

That taboo is still common today, showing that dog meat is not suitable for refined tastes, and certainly not for serving to guests. Dog fell increasingly out of favour after the Han dynasty. Philosophical Taoism, which rose in the late Han, saw dogs as unclean and consumption of dog was believed to harm efforts to live a simple life.

During the Tang and Song dynasties dog consumption decreased further as the range of available meats increased and stories of faithful dogs and Buddhist ideas of reincarnation spread.

China has many ethnic minorities, each with its own traditions and culinary customs. But none of them can be described as dog-eating. In Islam dogs are regarded as unclean and so there is a religious prohibition on eating dog meat. Mongols are traditionally nomads and see dogs as guards and staunch companions.

For Manchus eating dog is taboo, due to a legend that a dog saved the life of their forefather Nurhaci. The Tibetans are Buddhist and will not kill animals unnecessarily, and see dogs as loyal companions, so rarely eat them. Local government officials are evaluated by their superiors on GDP growth. But remote and poor regions struggle to meet these growth targets, and the officials responsible are under considerable pressure.

This gives rise to various odd money-making schemes, with cultural events designed to boost the local economy a popular choice. Dog-eaters have, naturally enough, any number of reasons to explain the legitimacy of the practice, going as far to defend its legality by pointing out that anything not banned by law, is permitted. But have they thought that there are moral standards as well, higher than legal ones? Or our own standards as human beings, higher again?

Legal standards are designed to protect our basic security. Moral standards maintain our civilisation and ensure we do not tend towards the degenerate. A nationwide survey found that 64 per cent of Chinese citizens wanted the Yulin festival shut down and In April, the cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai, were the first in China to officially ban the consumption of cat and dog meat.

The coronavirus outbreak started in Wuhan, China late last year. Covid is thought to have originated in horseshoe bats and passed to humans via an intermediary species. In response to the outbreak, China issued a temporary ban on all trade and consumption of wild animals and is considering revising legislation to make the ban permanent.

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? The Asia Canine Protection Alliance Acpa , which lobbies governments to try to end the dog meat trade, says there is some evidence that the dog meat trade is dangerous to humans, leading to an increase in diseases like rabies.

Acpa's focus is to end the illegal trade of dogs from Thailand and Laos into Vietnam, where an estimated five million dogs are slaughtered every year for human consumption, by tackling both the supply of dogs from Thailand and Laos, and the demand for dogs for consumption in Vietnam. Image source, Getty Images. Chinese vendors sell cooked dog meat at a market in Guiyang, southern China's Guizhou province in December So what about the rest of the continent?

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