ok then, why is it ok to eat cows and pigs but not to eat cats and dogs?

Question

in reference to the slaugter/euthanize question

Answer 1

It depends on where you live, on availability. In countries where dogs and cats are food, those animals are slaughtered. It has nothing to do with morality. If the people in the cat and dog-eating countries had cows and pigs, they'd eat those, because the meat's better and there's more of it. If all the cows and pigs vanished from North America tomorrow, before long we'd be eating other animals too.

Answer 2

Actually, it is okay to eat dogs and cats. It's just that it's very uncommon in the Western world because they are considered pets, not food animals.

In other places in the world, meat is meat, whether it comes from a domesticated animal or a wild animal. Dogs and cats may roam the streets, but they are still considered delicacies, and eaten for special occasions.

In the West, we tend to be very sentimental about domesticated animals, separating them into the kind we eat (basically, farm animals) and the kind we don't (housepets).

As far as I can see, there is no difference between eating the one and eating the other. My nephew spent several years in the Philippines, and dog meat was considered a delicacy reserved for special occasions. When it was offered to him, he knew it was a great honor, so he politely ate it.

I didn't read any question about slaughtering or euthanizing animals, but I would imagine it was a question about why don't we slaughter unwanted cats and dogs for food instead of euthanizing them. It would actually be a fairly decent proposal, except that the western mind and palate are firmly set against eating little Fido or Buffy. Unless there should be an enormous sea change in public opinion, I don't see that changing any time soon. We people in the west tend to think of our pets as members of the family, and eating them as tantamount to cannibalism. Until that changes, I doubt you will find them on a menu at a restaurant near you.

Answer 3

It's cultural relativity. In Western culture dogs and cats were bred and kept for a specific purpose - they were working animals, and then later, pets. The earliest archaeological evidence of domesticated cats is from Greece, in Italy, not Ancient Egypt like most people believe. The Ancient Egyptians are best known for their reverence of the domesticated cat, but the Greeks were apparently the first to domesticate them, probably to eradicate vermin. Dogs were domesticated in China about 15,000 years ago (believed to be the first animal domesticated by humans) for all-purpose use - cart pulling, hunting, protection, and food. With fewer meat domesticates in East Asia (their only real animal domesticates are dogs, chicken, duck, water buffalo, banteng, pigs, and millet fish), that makes sense. It's the same reason they eat guinea pig in South America - it's there, it's meat, and there were virtually no other animal domesticates in South America besides for the alpaca and chinchilla. We wouldn't eat guinea pigs, because we've never had to. Western culture teaches that cow, pig, chicken, turkey, etc. are acceptable food sources, and that you don't eat your work animals. In other cultures there is a blurrier line between work animals and food animals, and the two categories overlap considerably. Much less so in Western culture. So no, we shouldn't impose education that eating cats and dogs is "bad", because that's a very ethnocentric way of thinking. There is nothing any worse about slaughtering a dog than slaughtering a cow, except for the way we as Westerners view the two animals.

Answer 4

As I see it, when Hungry EAT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But in most parts of the world there are grain, fruit, maze, veggies, herbs. SO meat is second or third, Forth I forgot rice!
But if you are really hungry, go for it. Unless you have established an eye contact, loving bond, Be it rat,cat,fish, dog, horse, cow etc. It is always wrong to eat a friend!

Answer 5

it is not ok to eat any thing that is unclean.

Cow is generally considered clean, but given what has been found to have occured in the cattle industry and the feed lots during the past few years, I would call it unclean also unless you know the farm and farmer personally

Answer 6

they do in china, we as Americans have accepted them as house hold pets and are love able creatures that do not poop the size of a deflated basketball.

LOL -Something has to taste different than chicken. Pork and Beef adds a variety to the pallet. Dogs and cats probably taste like chicken, like rabbits and squirrel

Answer 7

Read my other answer also in Vietnam I was told they eat cats and dogs and rats. Some mice and small deer.
they are only not eaten in USA and Canada.
Do you think in Africa where food is scare they would think twice before eating anything that moves. From Lions and tigers and hippo's to elephants.

Answer 8

Because dogs and cats are domesticated. Do people have et cows? Plus dogs and cats do not have enough meat on them to eat as a meal.

Answer 9

In some countries, they would rather have a dog on the spit than a cow. Hell, I'd eat one if I was over there. Meat is meat pal!

Answer 10

Probably because cats & dogs give little meat. Chickens, of course, are small too, but provide both eggs & meat.