Claim: St. Bernard dogs are being raised for food in China.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2001]
PETITION TO STOP THE EXPORT OF
St. Bernard dogs are being exported to Asia (China, Phillipines, etc) as table meat. Some of these dogs are first tortured to increase their adrenaline levels BECAUSE IT IS BELIEVED THAT THIS MAKES THE MEAT TASTE SWEETER, then skinned alive. These animals are being killed because their meat is considered to be an aphrodisiac. This is an absolutely abhorrent practice and WILL STOP NOW! PLEASE, sign this Petition which, will be forwarded to the United Nations asking that they intervene.
We can all, as a world nation, do the same for our pets. Thank you.
PETITION TO STOP THE EXPORT OF ST BERNARD DOGS TO ASIA AS TABLE MEAT
We the undersigned ask that the United Nations intervene on behalf of the people of the world to stop this abhorrent treatment of all dogs and to stop countries exporting/importing dogs for the purpose of either breeding for food or using for food.
Origins: News reports from and about China are notoriously difficult to verify, and given the size and diversity of China's population, any statement about what
"Chinese people do" has to be taken with a grain of salt. Several European newspapers and news agencies have run items in recent weeks about the raising of
The main thrust of the articles is that some 11,000 signatures have been collected by a group in Switzerland known as the SOS
The fame of gently braising St Bernhard in oyster sauce or pot roast with aromatic vegetables has reached Beijing. At the Gourou Wang restaurant in a suburb of the capital - the name means Dog Meat King - On the public broadcasting system recently Professor Du Shaoyue said: "This is meat from an idle dog. They are very tasty and very nutritious." The film accompanying his voiceover shows little Song Shiyong, head of the Shenyang Dog Meat Research Institute said The Central Garrison Bureau, which is responsible for the wellbeing and security of President Jiang Zemin and other leaders, is a regular customer at a dog farm that specialises in the breeding of The Swiss dogs, which have been imported for mass breeding, weigh up to 200lb each and their meat costs about A brochure published by the Shenyang Agriculture and Science Development Institute, in the far northeastern province of Liaoning, praised the
In Datong, where coal was once the biggest business, sacked miners now make money cross-breeding pure
while a female narrator, then cuts over romantic piano music as the "growth qualities" of the breed are extolled.
One reporter found that Chinese claims about the savory aspects of dog meat didn't quite meet his expectations:
This description does not quite match what I found during a meal this week at Beijing's Dog Meat King restaurant. Groups of businessmen feasted in private rooms with karaoke video machines at the head of the table. Waitresses placed two menus in front of me, a regular one and a dog meat menu. The dog meat was not labelled as coming from Switzerland but the waitresses assured me that the Dog Meat King uses only the best type of meat, which I assumed to mean The dishes on offer cost between £3 and £9 and included stewed dog meat with soy sauce, dog ribs, stewed paws and tail with ginseng. I opted for dog meat boiled in soup. In retrospect, I would say that it tasted a bit like Irish beef stew but at the time it seemed more like a wet, crumbling digestive biscuit.
The Beijing academy spokesman said: "The taste of
Two of the points often mentioned — that the dogs "are sometimes subjected to a painful death because breeders believe that the resulting adrenalin rush improves the flavour" (or because this supposedly enhances the aphrodisiacal qualities of the meat) and that
Still, though the idea of someone's eating St. Bernards (or any other type of dog) may be abhorrent to us, it's also rather hypocritical of us to demand that it stop. Even if the Chinese are eating dogs, why is that any different than our eating lamb, for example? Would America react with anything but scorn if Hindus around the world presented the U.S. with a petition demanding that we stop the "abhorrent practice" of eating cows and exporting beef? Nonetheless, hypocrisy seems to be the typical stance of much of the world:
"If a Chinese cannot understand why Swiss people get so upset that they are eating
Animal welfare organizations, like the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), are outraged that Saint Bernards are being bred for their meat and have petitioned the Chinese government to introduce its first animal cruelty laws.
We suspect that if pandas were as plentiful (and edible) as dogs, the Chinese would already be eating them. But of course, their standards don't count, only ours do.
Certainly most of us prefer that any animals used for food be raised and killed humanely, but we don't have to look to China to find exceptions to this standard — there are plenty of cows, chickens, pigs, and other food animals being raised and slaughtered in appalling fashion right here in our own backyard. But of course, since we keep dogs as pets, we arrogantly assume we have the moral right to tell the rest of the world what they can do with their dogs. Why worry about the suffering of millions of our own livestock and poultry animals if we can beat up on somebody else for daring to eat dogs? As usual, the issue isn't really about the right of all animals to be treated humanely; it's only about the right of a small subset of cute and endearing animals to be treated humanely.
Last updated: 4 August 2011
 | Sources: |
August, Oliver. "Swiss Protest at China's Taste for St Bernard Stew." The [London] Times. 17 February 2001. Eckert, Paul. "Love for St. Bernard Meat Angers Swiss." Reuters. 28 March 2001. Hall, Allan. "Call to Rescue St Bernard Dogs from Chinese Dinner Tables." The Scotsman. 22 February 2001. Rennie, David. "Protest Over Plight of Doomed St Bernards." The [London] Daily Telegraph. 13 February 2001. Agence France-Presse. "Swiss Dog Lovers Outraged by Saint Bernard Stew in China." 5 February 2001. The [London] Evening Standard. "St Bernards on the Menu." 6 February 2001.
