Why do people in Asia eat dogs and cats?

Question

Why do people in Asia eat dogs and cats?

Answer 1

No emotional attachment, cats and dogs are not considered pets. Also if you are poor you will eat what is available.

Answer 2

My think: Asians throughout history have been dependent on the environment and lesser species to sustain themselves. They consume living plants (or its extracts), animal byproducts (eg. whey) to heal and nourish themselves (as in Indian, American Indian, Greek culture); the Chinese were, and are the same.

Chinese communities throughout the world continue their tradional reliance on herbal concoctions (and western supplements) to heal and balance the yin-yang in their bodies. Animals became a source of mind-&-body healing supplements - from sharks to snakes, bees to bears, dogs to iguanas, the Chinese until today believe in the therapeutic efficacies of consuming animal and plant and their byproducts. For instance, consuming dog meat enables the body to withstand the cold weather better (snake's soup is excellent too); Thais like their fried roaches, Koreans love dog meat and ginseng roots, Filipinos-Vietnamese-Cambodians can't do without their baluts (fertilized duck/chicken egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. They are common, everyday food); and so on....

I have Chinese friends in Singapore, Australia who still go for exotic meats whenever they can. If not available in their countries, they eat them elsewhere in Asia where dogs and iguanas are delicacies. Not a problem.

Answer 3

people all around the world (not just Asia) have differing diets.  they eat the foods that are available.  dogs and cats are animals like cows and pigs.  

just b/c you think kittys are cute and dogs are cuddly doesn't make them more important than cows or pigs.

Answer 4

why not..

Answer 5

Dogs are almost like farm animals. They eat them like pigs and cows. I don't know about cats. Plus, they only feed them rice or something. They don't feed them special dog food, give them showers and stuff. I don't see anything wrong with eating dogs and cats. I seen a video of some people in Mexico eating some bugs or roaches that still are alive.

Another note is that not all of Asia eat dogs and cats. People from modernized and advanced cities won't eat this. Only people from the countryside and farms will do this. They are illiterate. Eat whatever they can for survival.

Answer 6

The question is: why don't people elsewhere eat them?

In the west we have an emotional attachment to these species (although I have no idea why we like felines), but that's just a cultural thing. It's to do with the way you are raised...

Answer 7

that's what people from India say about us eating cows, and why Muslims say why do we eat pigs. animals are animal, and just because it's not custom for us to eat certain animals doesn't mean some thing's wrong with that. everyone eats animals, but some cultures were raised to survive on certain ones.

Answer 8

They enjoy them. I know it's a big joke in the US that Chinese food is really cat or dog, but one trip to China and you will see it isn't really a joke. I had dog when I was there. They couldn't tell me what kind of dog it was though.

Answer 9

because eating your grandparents is just plan sick

Answer 10

Because they have no taste, lol!!!!

Answer 11

stick to ants.

Answer 12

1 suppose its a delicacy like why do some of us eat cow its the same thing, everyone has something they like eating if you go to tunisa and Morocco they eat monkey brains.

Answer 13

Protein, kiddo.  People also eat rat, song birds, snakes, turtles, monkey, whales, beavers, ground hogs, squirrels, rabbits, armadillos, and anything else that can be eaten without harming or killing the consumer.

Answer 14

I'm Japanese and we don't eat dogs and cats. They are our pets. But we do eat a limited amount of dolphin and whale meats.......

Answer 15

It's a cultural thing...dogs & cats represent a food source...plain and simple. There are many cultures in the world with similarities and differences...here in the United States we eat beef/cows (unless you're a vegetarian). However, in India they technically don't eat cows because they are seen as sacred through reincarnation.