Is it really that wrong to eat dogs and cats?

ORIGINAL: ron2

Here's dinner!

 
heck mine wouldn't even make an appetizer... little thing is probably tough and stringy too [8|]

ORIGINAL: nyiceprincess

I hear BBQ troll is pretty tasty!

Yum.

Hmmm....seems our OP is not among us.  You can make all the philosophical arguments you want in favor of eating dogs and cats, but should anyone think of eating one of mine, you would have to get through me first, and it wouldn't be pretty.

well consuming domestic pets in our country is illegal for starters, so in a legal sense it is wrong. their are countries out there that do not eat cows as they believe them to be sacred creatures though.

personally, if i was around cows all the time i would probably not eat them anymore than i eat cats and dogs.

i do believe there is a huge difference, cats and dogs have been domesticated to serve as companion creatures, further dogs can actually assist in human activities, such as herding. cows are bred for food, and thus far i see no other purpose the may serve, the day i come across a seeing-eye cow i will cease to consume them.
 
ETA: look at shadow and his kitty, i could just eat them right up!

You know, it's been an ongoing joke between me and my mom that Cairo's rump would make a nice flank steak...

Just look at that deeeeelicious patootie!



But really, I'd post all my opinions on the subject but I'd just be repeating everything Britt/Ratsicles said as I agree with her 110%.  []
 
 
ETA:  gaylemarie - ever heard of the miniature ponies they use in place of seeing eye dogs sometimes?  I've seen videos of them...small dog sized ponies that lead blind people around.  How about the rats they use to sniff out underground mines because they're too light to set them off?  Just goes to show that there are actually unusual animals helping people out there....and why NOT cows?  Just because they're too big?  Well, what if they weren't?  What if we could use cows for something else, would that suddenly elevate their status?  Just something to think about

i do believe there is a huge difference, cats and dogs have been domesticated to serve as companion creatures, further dogs can actually assist in human activities, such as herding. cows are bred for food, and thus far i see no other purpose the may serve, the day i come across a seeing-eye cow i will cease to consume them.

Ehhh, sorry, that just bothers me. Who the heck are we to decide the value of another living thing? Why the heck do OTHER BEINGS have to serve some usefull purpose for humans to justify their existance as something other than food?

Animals have the right to life. If they get eaten, fine. But to look at it as "they're not serving a purpose that is useful to humans, so eat them" is just beyond arrogant.

I'm not attacking you for saying that...I'm attacking that idea in general. I just really can't see where we get off dictating whether or not something is "useful" based on what they do for humans. We are not the be all and end all, and I think that attitude is going to be the downfall of humanity. The planet really, really does not need us or our attitude.
 
 
ETA: Mikaela, Cairo certainly does look to be about eatin' size. Trade you for a couple of chickens? []

ratsicles, will you marry me?
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when my husband was in the Marines and stationed in Japan he was once fed a grayish disgusting looking meat. He tried it (being the macho Marine he felt he had to - luckily those days are over) and he said it was vile. Then he was told it was dog meat.
He still can't figure out how anyone can even consider eating the stuff unless they are starving and it's a life or death situation.
I do eat chicken, fish, pork, very little red meat....but I would probably be more of a gatherer than a hunter if I were starving.
But is it wrong? I don't think that answer is up to any one person - we domesicated cats and dogs as companions no as a food source.

i believe everything on this planet serves a purpose. i'm sorry if that is offensive but that is how i feel. i dont think its ok to just eat an animal because it serves no other purpose, i just think thus far the only purpose cows are known to serve is as food.

Probably not from a moral standpoint.  The difference is that here dogs are companion animals.  They live in our homes with us and become much loved family members.  So ... eating dog would be like eating your brother.  I'm sure there are places where people would  be horrified at the idea of eating a cow. It pretty much depends on where you are from and how you were raised.
 
Joyce

Actually in a lot of places cows are still raised as working farm animals, not necissarily food. One of the reasons that anthropologists hypothosize that cows became sacred in India is that they are so necessary to Indian society in many ways having nothing to do with eating them. They are used as draft animals, they supply milk and butter (which is of course food but doesn't actually involve the eating of them) which are both staples of the Indian diet, and their dung is what most Indians still use to make their cooking fires. Without the cow and water buffalo, rural Indians would have no means to plough their fields, cart their wares to the local market, and have a constant supply of milk and fuel. And you'll find that many people who have a working cow or buffalo feel just the same about that cow as a farmer feels about his prize working dog.

ORIGINAL: houndlove

ratsicles, will you marry me?
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Why, sure! [sm=kiss.gif]
 

i believe everything on this planet serves a purpose. i'm sorry if that is offensive but that is how i feel. i dont think its ok to just eat an animal because it serves no other purpose, i just think thus far the only purpose cows are known to serve is as food.

 
I believe that everything serves a purpose too: it's own, personal purpose that NO one else may even be aware of. A cow may be here ultimately to do something special for the other cows in its herd. A pig may be here to one day meet and bond with a certain other pig who has lost a dear friend. There are many other purposes that something may serve that I see from my religious standpoint, but I won't go there because this isn't the place. The point is, every single individual is here for it's own reasons. Just because someone else can't see those reasons doesn't mean they aren't there. Perhaps from a purely ecological standpoint, cows as a species exist primarily as a food source for other animals. On an individual scale though, it's much, MUCH more complex than that. Everything exists for it's own reasons...and I'll say it again...those reasons rarely, if ever, have anything to do with humans.

I know that I just wouldn't be able to raise and kill an animal, and if I can't do that then I shouldn't ask someone to do it for me in such a way that I can just ignore it and not have to think about it.

 
Exactly how I feel!!!

It's actually economics that dictates what we eat: 
horses grow slowly and produce little meat and can work-- it's more economical to use them for labor. No one anywhere in the world raises horses as meat animals, it would cost a fortune per pound. The horse meat consumed in some cultures are from horses that were no longer able to labor, or were discarded for some reason. Very economical-- use them for labor, then eat them.
 
Pigs eat anything and grow like crazy-- it's very economical to raise them for meat.
 
Feral cats, even better-- you don't have to feed them, and if you eat them they won't be eating the birds you also might want to eat.
 
Dogs eat meat. Feeding lots of meat to an animal you want to eat is economically ridiculous. If you look at cultures that eat dogs, traditionally they would eat the excess puppies, which in places without spay and neuter would be in constant supply and a real nuisance if not gotten rid of somehow. Or you have the poi dogs which were fed on poi, a non-meat substance.

horses grow slowly and produce little meat and can work-- it's more economical to use them for labor. No one anywhere in the world raises horses as meat animals, it would cost a fortune per pound. The horse meat consumed in some cultures are from horses that were no longer able to labor, or were discarded for some reason. Very economical-- use them for labor, then eat them.

That is actually incorrect.

There are 3 slaughterhouses operating in the US, owned by foreign companies, all the meat gets sent to Europe and Asia. Some Countries in Europe enjoy horse meat on a regular basis.
It's not just old horses that get slaughtered.
 
[linkhttp://www.sharkonline.org/?P=0000000528]http://www.sharkonline.org/?P=0000000528[/link]

Considering some cultures think we're barbarians for eating sacred cows, I can't say that eating dogs is a bad thing. Meat is meat. I personally wouldn't eat a dog though.