Dog meat festival is canceled in China

[n2doc]

REPORTING FROM BEIJING -- A 6-century-old tradition of dog eating collided this week with modern concepts about animal rights, and this time, modernity won.

Local authorities canceled a three-day festival that had been planned for Oct. 18 in Jinhua City, Zhejiang province, after tens of thousands of people who organized over the Internet complained.

The festival was part of a local tradition dating back to 1389, when legend has it that a Ming dynasty military hero who was trying to capture Jinhua decided to kill all the dogs so they wouldn't bark at night and disrupt his invasion.

"True, it was part of our cultural history, but not all culture should be inherited," said Chen Manhong, director of the Small Animal Protection Society Rescue in nearby Hangzhou. "Women used to have their feet bound but we don't do that anymore."

more

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/09/china-dog-meat-festival-is-canceled.html

[get the red out]

1. "not all culture should be inherited"

I totally agree! People tend worship and defend "traditional" culture way too much, especially someone else's.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Heresey! All culture should be considered of equal merit and worthy, honored and esteemed

Heard that here on DU more than often...I disagree then, I disagree now.

[Bonobo]

2. We're having an Octopus Festival on my island tomorrow.

Lots of delicious tako-yaki!!

[shanti]

25. japan

has the best festivals. i remember them from when i was a child.

[izquierdista]

3. Isn't that the truth!

"...but not all culture should be inherited"

[panader0]

4. How about the Testicle Festival?

Pretty popular in the west.

[n2doc]

8. Not sure if the number of folks who love other's testicles is the same size as dog lovers

I for one have never seen anyone stop in the street, reach into someone else's pants, and stroke their testicles. I'm sure it happens, though....

[jberryhill]

10. Obviously you haven't run into the folks who love their dog's testicles.. no joke

http://www.neuticles.com/

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[n2doc]

12. 425,000!!!

Hard to believe that number.

[jberryhill]

13. Well, you have to divide by two /nt

[pinboy3niner]

11. They're more palatable...

...when they're called 'Rocky Mountain Oysters.' :)

[Uncle Joe]

19. It's still on, Ben & Jerry's will be providing the dessert.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1898820

[Botany]

5. Well some people like to wok their dogs.

[pinboy3niner]

6. LOL!

:spank:

[jberryhill]

9. Why do you think they call it "chow"

[pinboy3niner]

14. Seeing a skinned, whole dog carcass hanging in a restaurant...

...is disturbing. It's not at all like seeing a side of beef. It's an emotional reaction based on our culture's attachment to housepets.

[DataException]

15. I've got no problem with it...

I personally believe that, if we were truly concerned with world hunger, that we would cart up all of the unwanted dogs and cats and ship them off to the millions of starving people around the world. These animals are getting killed anyway and incinerated.

I guarantee you that all of the starving people could care less if your giving them a hamburger, turkey burger, or fido burger. It's all just meat.

[get the red out]

16. If we were truly concerned with world hunger

We would simply be truly concerned with humanitarian efforts rather than war efforts; including providing and encouraging birth control. But since we'd rather be a fundamentalist-looking, corporate empire it's a moot point.

If there are Chinese opposed to this festival, good for them.

[DataException]

17. All good points...

However, they could definitely use some extra meat as well.

[get the red out]

18. We have a long way to go on organization

We have a long way to go in getting organized and willing enough to selflessly help in order to do anything on any scale about world hunger, and we will have better resources than some poor group of stray dogs to feed people by the time we advance that far.

[JoeyT]

20. And if someone points out that many that are positively horrified by the thought of eating a dog

are perfectly happy to eat a cow, chicken, turkey, or pig, many a fit will be pitched.

We shouldn't have to respect the culture of others, but they should goddamned well respect ours is apparently how it works.

[Heywood J]

21. Right...

Activists said 5,000 to 10,000 dogs would be butchered for the festival without regard to their suffering. Photographs and graphic accounts of the slaughter have circulated for the last few weeks over the Internet, with tens of thousands of people expressing outrage.

"Dogs would be stabbed, strangled and even beaten into comas and thrown into boiling water. Some dogs woke up in the extremely hot water and they struggled, but the vendors kept pushing them, plucking their fur," wrote one activist, Wang Lingyi, in a micro-blog posting.

Never mind that such a thing would constitute cruelty no matter where you did it or what animal you did it to, that there are apparently photos of this happening, or that it's Chinese activists working to have this canceled. You just keep beating that cultural relativism horse (no pun intended).

[undeterred]

22. They are all horrifying, but dogs more so.

[Johonny]

23. We prefer our dogs to die silently in shelters like our prisoners

so we can pretend to "really" care about dogs. OMG some cultures kill and eat dogs. So we kill them and toss them away like so much garbage by the thousands. The whole myth Americans "care" about dogs is another myth I don't get. Some Americans care really, really deeply about dogs and cats. Most pretend to care, but really don't do anything to prevent the unnecessary build up and killing of pets in our animal shelters.

[1620rock]

24. Meat is murder. All meat.

[bluestate10]

26. Why did you write that?

Makes me want to throw up the steak that I just eat, and cancel my planned fish dinner for tomorrow. Guess I will have to settle for chicken.

[flvegan]

28. Why did you write that?

Immature? Lashing out? Clueless? Making a point that being an asshole is terribly easy? Passive aggression is trendy now?

[flvegan]

27. Which is why, maybe, we should not eat any of them.

Respecting culture aside, we don't have to barbaric any more.

[Raine]

29. GOOD!

:thumbsup: