Vietnam is trying to ban the tradition of eating Little Tiger, a meal made of Cat meat. People fear losing their pet there to the people who still cook it, sell it or eat it. The one guy they interviewed said he buys his Cats for meat from a reputable breeder, but, another challenged that and said there are no reputable breeders. And that all the Cats are trapped or stolen.
I believe there are lots of Cat breeders there, none of them 'reputable'. They also eat Dog there. These dishes are traditional at different Moon times and are said to bring luck. You can argue that meat is meat, but, my opinion is this, the difference between other meat and Cat and Dog meat is simple. Other meats are not born to be your friend, like a Cat or a Dog. It is pretty much ingrained in Cats and Dogs to come to Humans and love Humans. Even feral ones will come to you eventually. That's not true of most other animals who have an ingrained distrust of us. To have a beast love and trust you and then kill it for food when you are not in dire circumstance, is sickening to me. I may seem to be a contradiction when I just had a pork chop this week, but, the difference is clear to me. Hogs raised for food don't like us, they would eat us first, given a chance. I feel no connection to them. The same with Cows and Chickens, etc. You don't see anyone riding around with those in their car. Or lounging on the sofa watching tv with them. On the odd occasion that you do make friends with livestock, you shouldn't eat those either. I dunno, man, it's just what I think. I like knowing livestock are treated well and given a short, but, good life where they can go roam outside and interact with their own species. When they are ingrained to interact more with Humans than even their own kind, then that makes them off limits for food and I don't care what phase the Moon is in. Trust is a funny thing, a thing that makes you responsible to it. You have no business killing a friend, no matter if they have two legs or four. That up there? That's just a plate full of well deserved guilt to me.
I think most of you, most, feel the same. My question is, if you were born and raised in Vietnam, do you think you would feel the same way? I'm sure I would. But, I would be less likely to protest the tradition. I would be more sympathetic to the people who do this, I think. Right now, I think THEY should go in the stew pot. In fact, I would kind of enjoy seeing that. I might even try a bite. It probably tastes like...Cat.
23 comments:
cats don't 'love'. Cows do. And we eat them.
If one wants to eat cats or dogs, I am fine with that. Isn't worse than eating shrimp, lobster or horse.
When I said most people would agree, I repeated most...for you. I knew you say this.
PS, across the pond, my ass.
I won't even eat veal. I know how it's made. No way in Hell. Cat or dog? I would starve first. Eat f'g tree bark if you are starving. Eat dirt. Leaves, flowers. Not somebody's pet. Jesus Christ. I won't buy anything for my dog's made in China either. Linda McCartney once said she got Paul to stop eating meat when she told him to look outside at the lambs jumping and playing. And then said, you should never eat anything with a face. Her line of frozen food is a big deal over there. He still promotes it. Linda was not a small woman. She was just a normal looking woman. I can't not have my home grown tomatoes on a BLT every summer tho. Sorry. I eat meat. Protein burns fat. I am yet to meet a thin vegetarian. I know it's not about that, but they promote it as being healthier. Most of them eat crap. Just not meat. I know a few, and it's always the same thing. Junk food. Some veggies or fruit. Mostly carbs and junk.
Rox
PS: I love the Mel Gibson movie, The Patriot. When they find those beautiful great dane's and some of the men want to eat them. Mel says "Dog is a fine meal". But they never ate them. They loved them. And they were loyal to him. Dogs know everything. Watch that precious new video of that schnauzer seeing his momma for the 1st time in 2 years and see if you think that baby could ever be supper. I cried, she's so precious. I would feed my dogs before I fed myself, if it came down to that. I'd survive. But they need me.
Rox
Rox, no way in hell do I eat veal. All animals deserve a life. Killing baby animals is sickening. And wasteful too. Fuck 'tender'. I would ask veal eatetrs if their child is tender.
You're more hard core than me. I would starve if it was my dog, but, if it was my kid (any kid) starving, I'd do it. I could too. So long, Fido, been nice knowing you, this won't hurt, I promise.
I know! I loved that vid! Dogs love us, they really do.
I agree, my dog is not food. No dog is unless your baby is dying. Then all bets are off. Sorry. I HAVE fed dogs before myself, for sure.
Lia, on here, is a thin Vegan. She's tiny. But, she's not judgemental.
Lol! I was silly enough to own a vegan cafe/bakery (stupid because only 10% of the pop will even walk into a vegan eatery while just about everyone will walk into a vegetarian one) but I'm not vegan. My husband is vegetarian and so I eat mostly vegetarian but for my birthday I ate meat and I will eat meat for Christmas Dinner. I prefer a vegetarian diet because
1). We are desensitized and therefore don't think about the fact that a creature lost its life so that we can eat it. Once you start eating veg your mind starts focussing on that fact more and more, until finally you feel dead guilty about it and prefer not to consume it,
2). I get really constipated when I eat meat, and that lead to hemmorriods, bloating and indigestion. I had all the irritable bowel symptoms when I ate meat regularly and often needed to take laxatives and indigestion pills. All that stopped when I started eating only veg.
As for dog eating in Vietnam, you regularly see skinned dog carcasses at the markets there. You can tell they are dogs because they skin everything except the tail. They eat everything over there. I even saw bear paw whiskey. It was a large glass bottle of home brew whiskey with a big severed bears paw in it. People in SE Asia will stop these practices once animal rights campaigners get to them and make them think about it all more deeply. The worst I ever saw in a market was frogs sewn together in Laos. They were sewn together to stop them escaping while ensuring they stayed alive and therefore fresh. You won't believe some of the stomach churning shit I've seen in Asian markets.
I've always weighed the same, whether a meat eater or veg. I'm not that into food, I don't need it for comfort, I prefer alcohol lol, and I don't have a sweet tooth!
I have a friend from Hong Kong and she says in Asia anything with four legs except a chair is fair game for dinner. I think if you grow up with that mentality, you don't really think about it much. I think it is born of desperate times when there is little to choose from. Which animal would you eat last if you had many to choose from? That when you have the luxury of saving the 'best for last'. That's when you start seeing a 'face'or personality. When you can afford to see them as more than meat. That's when you stop seeing a cat or dog as expendable. So there's not really a justifiable reason for eating them here.
No. Just no. I would not eat cat or dog. They are thinking, feeling creatures, who maintain a friendly relationship with humans. Domesticated for so long. I think it's a crime to kill and eat them if you are not starving. If you are starving, and eat them, well, I think that would stay with you forever.
I grew up with goats and meat rabbits, but some of them had names and were pets. My dad killed them anyway, and we had to eat them. I was so sad when he killed a bunny I loved. I was a teenager, so I sat inside, crying, and playing "Love Lies Bleeding" by Elton John. Then he butchered my goat. I refused to eat goat from there on. They are delicious, but if they are pets, they should be off limits.
Christina
There are a lot of Vietnamese in the area of Sacramento, and they like to torture cats. They eat plenty of them. I'm serious. It's true.
Christina, I have had such wonderful close relationships with Goats, that I could never eat any. I know they're meat here, but, not on my plate and for the same reason as dog or cat. Smarty and they love us and trust us. No way. I HAVE ridden around with my Goat in the car. She loved school pick up times. She (and others) were true friends and I have no desire or curiosity to eat goat. I would liken it to human flesh in my mind.
PS, I don't want to bad mouth your dad, I'm sure he thought he was teaching you somethihng, but, that's too traumatic. It's not a good thing to do to a child. I used to freak out and get nightmares on chicken butchering days and we weren't even allowed to play with the meat chickens. My granny was the only one who'd excuse me from helping. I am still grateful for that wisdom. She said I was too critter sensitive to make me do it. The result is that now, I can do it myself (if I need to) and do it right and not feel guilt or have nightmares. It's part of growing up around here. Your dad's insistance is peculiar to me and I feel real bad for young you.
No shit, Border? They should be turned in and do time. No fines, just jail in a heartbeat and plenty of it. Boring hard ass county time too, not cushy prison. Maybe they will stop enjoying it so much. Sick behavior just encourages more sick behavior. Serial killers start with cats and work up to kids. A fact we all know.
Well I put a fairly long post on here about seeing skinned dogs at the markets in Vietnam (you can tell they're dogs because they leave the tail intact), as well as severed bear paws in whisky jars, and frogs sewn together to keep them fresh and to stop them hopping away. but it must have got lost in the inter netz :-( anyway, bedtime now.
Anonymous, you never starved. That for sure.
Starving people eat EVERYTHING.
That said, my grandma told me that cat really tastes like rabbit and grandpa never knew the difference ...
It truly was an unpleasant childhood in many ways, Pat. And, I feel very strange saying that to you, as yours was truly traumatic.
I spent a lot of time truly afraid of my dad. He was so moody, and angry, and truly unhappy in his work. The only time he was happy was when he was working on the gardens we had. He truly had a green thumb, and could make any dead twig grow, but he made no effort at all to instill any of the joys of gardening in us kids. I don't think he knew how, or thought it of any importance. He hit us a lot, yelled in our faces, and belittled us often. He was scarey, and with my mom's sarcasm, and mean comments, it was difficult to have any self-esteem at all.
He truly believed we were idiots for not wanting to eat the goats, or the rabbits we named, and bonded with. I was always afraid of kids I knew, knowing how tense it was in our house. It looked great from the outside. A well-kept exterior with beautiful trees and flower beds, huge gardens, open fields, nuts and berries of every kind, rows of grapes and many varieties of fruit trees. Everything well-kept. Inside was anger, despair and tension.
I like to scrapbook, and am just getting ready to start a project I've been thinking about for several years. I am making small scrapbooks for my sister and brother. I've decided that I am going to scrapbook every good thing, or pretty vista from our childhood, and put the best spin on all of it for the two of them. It is up to us to decide on how to remember it all. We may have been dominated and kept down during those years, but we can choose to remember the parts we want, and make a peaceful place where that hurtful space was. Of course, I will make one for myself, as well. All the negative power of those times will be banished, as far as I am concerned.
Christina
You know what? Rice. Rice is super cheap and readily available. We all have rice. Beans! Rice and beans. There. Now nobody will starve and dogs could survive on it too. Boom. Done. Yay.
Compassion knows no cultural borders. We, as humans, have the capability to spread the teaching of compassion to all. I totally agree that cats and dogs, through thousands of years of domestication, have evolved into true family members, companions and friends. Just seeing the photo attached to this post made me sick to my stomach. And the conditions these poor animals endure by those mutherfuckers who capture and murder them for consumption is beyond disgusting. Who wants to eat terror, fear and filth?
No matter where I was born, I could NEVER eat a cat or dog (or any animal for that matter.) Fuck this bullshit that eating certain animals brings LUCK. Fuck luck. Be decent and a decent life awaits you.
Border Collie, those Vietnamese fuckers should be exterminated for hurting those cats. You can't defy society and then expect mercy. Fuckers - I would kill them, no problem. When it comes to animals and babies, I am judgmental. Assholes.
I am glad I have no children. Because I would not be able to stand the thought of eating my animals. They come first. They don't know better.
People in Thailand dump their dogs at their local temple (wat) where the monks feed them scraps. Here is an article about a temple that houses 1000 dogs and 300 cats. They were being cared for by just two women and you just can't imagine the squalor. Some welfare organizations have now stepped in. Fascinating article!
http://bangkok.coconuts.co/features/inside-the-dog-condo-bangkoks-abandoned-animals-face-nightmare-conditions-at-wat-suan-kaew
Mary_Mary;
You are not judgmental. You are caring and compassionate.
I always get a knot in my stomach over the animal posts. I don't read the really bad ones. That kind of stuff stays with me and bothers me for a long time. And I'm always thinking when I'm reading about this stuff, how it's going to affect Maryx2 and others here. I love all of the animal lovers here so much.
And I would eat my own fingers before I'd hurt one of my babies.
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