China signals end to dog meat consumption by humans

Just another Western idea, forced upon the oppressed by the white devils of Europe.

Now they will only be allowed to eat bat and pangolin. How pedestrian.

I've always believed that eating dog and cat is fundamentally different from cows and other livestock because of the behavioral changes that came with the physical changes with domestication. Part of the behavior that has been bred into these animals is their lack of fear of humans (see Russian study on domesticating foxes).

So, from that perspective I applaud this move.

However, in the short-term and likely for several years, this is going to create both massive hardship for people who depend on them for food, economic turmoil who depend on the trade, and misery for the animals. We're not talking about a couple guys with a few cages, but an entire industry - estimates suggest upwards of 10 million dogs are killed each year for food. Even if that figure is 10 times larger than it really is, a million dogs killed each year is still a huge number of breeding dogs to produce them kept in stock that would be killed or starved.

It will be very ugly for a very long, long time, and it's not clear what, if anything, will be done to reduce animal, and human, suffering likely to occur.

Chairman Xi, are you going to let a bunch of foreigners push China around?

They can issue bans all they want but are they going to educate the public about it? South Korea banned it only a few years ago but people there are still finding ways to get around it easily.

It goes on right here in the USA. Damn those who indulge in such depravity everywhere it occurs.