CNN visits dog and cat meat market in China

Warning: This may shock you if you love dogs and cats. In this video report, CNN's Emily Chang goes to a dog and cat meat market in Guanghzhou, China. There, dogs and cats are kept in cages and sold to restaurants and street vendors that specialize in things like cat stew and frozen dog leg. The Chinese government has taken the first steps in banning the consumption of dog and cat meat, but this report says it may take a decade for actual changes to be implemented.

I'm a contributing editor here at Boing Boing. I also have a blog (TokyoMango), a book (Urawaza), and I freelance for Wired, Make, the NY Times Magazine, PRI's Studio360, etc. I'm @tokyomango on Twitter.

MORE: Action

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Anonymous

What a biased report! Her overall attitude and vocal tone towards another culture’s culinary history is dispicable. I have no interest in eating these meats, but I don’t see anything wrong with it. The conditions they’re kept in are no different from live chickens or pigs at any other market. CNN is so awful.
Beezy

Interesting that so many of you would be okay with barbecuing my cat, Fluffy.

Granted that people love meat, but it seems like there are so many better options these days that don’t put such a strain on the world’s resources. The amount of grain used to feed one steer could feed many more people than the resulting beef from that steer.
- Anonymous
  
  I agree I don’t eat any meat I do very well and it’s just me but I feel better and eating cats and dogs does bother me I can’t help how I feel I’m not a genius like a lot of the people sound but it is a moral thing to me I use to eat meat but now I would rather have fruits and veggies and carry a nylon handbag and flip flops the cruelty is what I find most offensive for all creatures human and other. Please don’t hate me.
Daedalus

I’m happy to see that a lot of BB posters have a “meat is meat” reaction to this. As a proud omnivore, I agree. Cows, pigs, and chickens have co-evolved for thousands of years, too. In fact, these dogs and cats seem better-treated then the industrially farmed pigs, chickens, and cattle here in the US. I’ve owned dogs and cats, and while I wouldn’t eat the pets I love, I wouldn’t say it would be inherently wrong (or more wrong than eating anything other animal). Perhaps this is the farm boy in me talking. I’ve seen a lot of affectionate cattle turned into hamburgers. I respect that sacrifice. Rather than visiting a meat market in China and being all “OH NOES TEH FLUFFIES!!!!”, CNN should take some cameras into some of the big meat suppliers stateside, show us where our Big Macs come from.

Remember, the greater jihad is the one that you fight in yourself.
Robert

ooooh no little kitty cats!!
Daedalus

(and if we could get some of this perspective the next time a post comes up about some Japanese guy falling in love with a pillow or something, that would be great)
theawesomerobot

Meat is meat. Pigs are easily just as smart as dogs. Don’t fool yourself – what Americans have done to livestock for decades is far worse.
Anonymous

I wouldn’t eat a dog or a cat, but who are we to stop somebody else? I am sure the worlds Hindus aren’t happy with the millions of cows that go to slaughter every year.

I have to agree with some of the other comments, there is an element of racism here, e.g. “look at those savages eating cat and dog meat”
If an animal is kept humanly and slaughtered quickly and without suffering I have no issue with it. Lets move the argument to how animals are kept and killed, that’s where the horror is.
CNN and others, how about a story on factory chicken farming? feedlot cattle? veal cages? factory pig farming? in the USA, oh I forgot, you can’t offend the advertisers….
Anonymous

It’s a little more complicated than “meat is meat.”

The thing about domesticated animals like dogs (and to a lesser extent cats) is that years of artificial selection have changed them to companion and work animals for humans.

So when a dog looks at you, wagging its tail, with puppy eyes – it’s not just that we find it cute. Co-evolution has lead to a situation where dogs can understand human emotion better than any other non-human animal can…and can, in a sense, manipulate human emotional response into finding them cute, among other things.

Now, that in itself isn’t a moral argument to avoid eating dogs. But simply saying “meat is meat” or “you’re a hypocrite for not wanting to eat cute animals” seems to miss a big aspect of why some might find the idea of eating domestic animals repulsive.
- Rich
  
  I don’t doubt that Europeans, Americans, Australians, find eating a dog or cat offensive. However to a number of Chinese and Koreans it is culturally acceptable (there is a big tradition of dog eating in Korea). Who are we to impose our values on them?
  At the end of the day an animal is an animal. Any ‘complication’ is purely cultural value we apply to dogs and cats. A dog has no more value than a pig, they are both sentient intelligent creatures.
SamPL

What exactly is more objectionable about eating dogs and cats than other animals? Pigs are equally if not more intelligent, are they not? And pork is raised and slaughtered (and probably eaten by this reporter) in squalid conditions throughout the US daily. We should be basing our moral decisions about what’s right to eat on an animal’s consciousness and the conditions in which it was cared for–not based on how cute the species appears to humans! If the thought of slicing up and chewing on any intelligent life form makes you cringe, you should only be eating vegetables.
- Anonymous
  
  AMEN. Thanks for posting so eloquently.
Ernunnos

I had a pet calf when I was a kid on the farm. I still love a good steak. If we’re going to legislate and go to the effort of changing culture, how about mandating humane treatment for all livestock?
gazelle27

Reading the comments here makes me love Boing Boing and the community here even MORE!!! Personally, some of the dogs seem to be in better condition than a lot of the animals in the factory farms in the US. Boing Boing readers, i love thee.
inkadinka12

“A good dog should taste like tender veal…” This was from one of my favorite restaurant reviews, in (I think) Newsweek or US News around 1993. I still remember this line, nearly 20 years later.
Matt J

As a non-meat eater I am totally opposed to this, but consider it the height of hypocrisy for meat eaters to hold the same viewpoint. A pig is just as, if not more intelligent than both dogs and cats but is a favourite food animal in the West. I can understand not wanting to eat dogs and cats but to declare that other people shouldn’t whilst you wolf down your bacon is stupid.
- Anonymous
  
  You’re opposed to banning the consumption of dogs and cats in China!? Ice cold, man. Ice cold.
Anonymous

I ate cat (it was a lynx) up in Northern Canada with some Cree Indians. Learned a valuable lesson that day: mammal is mammal – it all tastes the same.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  You’ve never eaten yak, have you?
DanielZKlein

Seriously, what the hell is the problem? Oh no, this particular animal looks so very fluffy and cute, we must never eat it!

What is the legal situation re: Cat & Dog meat in the rest of the world? Is it because we keep cats and dogs as pets and we are seriously afraid that the Chinese sneak into our house at night and steal Fluffy to turn him into Tasty?

Really, this just puzzles me. And gives me a certain curiosity to try dog meat.
Marcel

Go to any slaughterhouse on this planet.
Any.
And you will find images more disturbing than this.
Anonymous

I have no respect for CNN after this. This is just sensationalism and shock tactics, no journalism, no objectivity, just ignorant closed minded sensationalism.

If they wanted to do an animal rights story in China, they could do one about Bile Bears. Asiatic black bears, held in cages so small they can’t move, have holes drilled through their abdomens, into their gallbladders, and a tube is inserted which is milked each day till they die slowly and in the most painful way possible. That’s actual cruelty you can go out and expose a story on, this is just a heartstring-tugging fluff piece based on cultural ignorance.
hymie

Bunnies are fluffy and cute, and they’re eaten regularly. The New York Times even gives recipes – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/dining/03rabbitrex2.htm. I don’t see the problem here.
elguapostrikes

I would eat a cat, no lie. Aloof pricks.
Jamie Sue

I don’t understand the aversion to eating cat or dog meat. It’s not something that personally interests me, but I wouldn’t be put off by someone cooking it in my kitchen. I know that they are intelligent, compassionate creatures… but I grew up on a farm, and I’d consider most animals raised for food intelligent, compassionate creatures. It’s like the difference between eating a cow and eating a horse. It’s largely based on perceived external beauty of the beast.

Illegalising the consumption and sale of cat and dog meat will probably create a vicious black market and grosser violations of animal rights. If I was in charge of the problem I’d leave it legal, but I’d work on changing the cultural attitude regarding the animals by creating imagery and campaigns that align eating dog and cat with negative health affects, poor upbringing, savagery, filth and disease while running similar campaigns that focus on the virtues of cats and dogs as companion animals. I’d throw in a few sympathetic celebrities, some fluff news pieces, and some super restrictive health code regulations for serving dog or cat and call it a day. Interest would naturally fall in the product.

The cultural attitude could definitely shift over ten years. At the very least, should it have to come down to making consumption of those animals illegal, all the foot work will make the law easier to enforce because people would have more of a sense of shame about it.
tuckels

I wouldn’t eat dog, since I’ve grown up with a pair of them, but I’m sure if I’d grown up with a pig as a pet, i wouldn’t be able to eat bacon.
As long as the animal was killed humanly, not diseased and not endangered, i think they’re fair game for consumption.
Anonymous

Agree with SamPL, etc. I feel the same way about Academy Award winning documentary The Cove. Because cows and chickens are not as cute or intelligent as dolphins or dogs, they are fair game?
fatwomenhavecurves

old news is so exciting!
Exploto

Onkelchrispy: I am not being facetious. I am a vegan and believe that eating all forms of meat is morally wrong, just as many feel eating cats and dogs and monkeys and dolphins and people is wrong.

Sometimes I honestly can’t wait for the aliens to come and eat us all because they are smarter, stronger, and have better technology than us. It may happen and you won’t be able to complain about it unless you’re one of us.
- onkelchrispy
  
  Exploto: I mean are you being facetious by stating that if “China were to suddenly ban all meat markets, they would find themselves light years ahead of everyone else morally”?
Exploto

You know, if China were to suddenly ban all meat markets, they would find themselves light years ahead of everyone else morally.
- onkelchrispy
  
  Exploto, are you being facetious?
yvgeny

Interesting. As an Asian-American, I endured a lot of dog meat/cat meat jokes during my childhood. Apparently, it’s all true and newsworthy, according to CNN. I hope future generations of Asian-American children can now appreciate the jokes for what they are: accurate descriptions of food that Westerners rightly find repulsive. Seriously, it’s dismaying to find CNN giving legitimacy to this kind of sensationalism.
Anonymous

The real problem is how the Chinese treat cats and dogs prior to food preparation. I once saw an HBO documentary where a smiling Chinese chef had a cat by the neck (via tongs) smacked it lightly on the head (to stress it out and add to the ‘flavor’), then dip it ALIVE(!) in boiling water. It really made me want to do things because that was so wrong.

If they’re going to eat cat and/or dog then they damn well should kill the poor things PRIOR to food preparation and cooking. They should do that to other creatures they eat. I’ve seen where snakes and rats have been skinned alive and are suffering on hooks, awaiting sale. Does anyone think that is OK??????????????
EMJ

The difference is that none of the domestic animals commonly eaten in the west are carnivores.

Cute & slaughter in sight = non-edible in our hypocritical world view. Less cute & slaughtered out of sight/mind = food.

All meat eaters should be aware and supportive of how their food gets to the table or else stop eating meat.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  The difference is that none of the domestic animals commonly eaten in the west are carnivores.
  
  A potential health problem. The higher up the food chain you eat, the more ‘flavorings’ like heavy metals and pesticides come with your food.
  - AJE
    
    Perhaps more critically a sustainability problem. Even in the case of unpolluted production, entropic losses of 80-90% occur with each step up the food chain. Thus, eating herbivores yields only 10-20% of the food capacity that eating plants would. Eating carnivornes is worse, putting us at 1-2% of the food that we would have had if we had been herbivores. Coarsely, eating lions would feed 1-2 people, whereas eating the vegetation that the lion’s prey would have consumed would feed 100 people.
Anonymous

CNN should visit some of the factory farms in American before the stomp around the world suggesting that another food culture is unethical.
Lookforthewoman

1978, Jacques Cousteau:
“…[The]harp seal[hunt] question is entirely emotional. We have to be logical. We have to aim our activity first to the endangered species. Those who are moved by the plight of the harp seal could also be moved by the plight of the pig, with which we make our bacon.”

It’s cats and dogs, our oldest companion animals. Do people think that hunter gatherer tribes didn’t eat them too?

How about we work to save the nigh extinct species before we worry about the ones that accompany us everywhere we go.
dbisping

this is most disturbing because CNN is showing just how low it will go.

if they wanted to report on real news then they’d be reporting on the poor and hungry people in Africa who are forced to eat monkeys and apes. that practice spreads horrible diseases that threaten humanity. the diseases from run of the mill farm animals are bad enough.

the only thing disgusting in this news report is our smug sense of superiority over people who are obviously thriving.
Anonymous

Here’s a related thread on MeFi about an italian chef who was taken off TV after making a show about cat recipes: http://www.metafilter.com/89922/You-want-fries-with-dat

I think the comments bring up some great points, namely that pigs are smarter than dogs, and bunnies are cuter than kittens, yet pork and rabbit are delicious, and eating them is guilt-free.

I think it’s horrible that western culture feels the need to impose its (backwards and illogical) morals on other societies. This makes me sad.
Anonymous

I agree with almost every comment here
What is the problem with eating cat and dog meat
Is it because we don’t have another name for it once it becomes meat
I.e.pig=animal pork=meat, cow=animal beef=meat, chicken=animal poultry=meat
Zac

Ummmm who cares?

I mean, I do feel a little squeemish about eating or killing the smarter animals of the world (dolphins, apes, elephants), and pigs and dogs are right around that line (cats, let’s be honest, are dumb as rocks), but still, these are not dramatically intelligent and compassionate animals, and I don’t care that they are furry and cute.
sally599

They should be able to eat what they want within reason, my guess is that China is doing this as a form of image control as they begin to phase in their world domination.
onkelchrispy

It is preposterous to claim that there is a ‘animal-loving’ meat-eating hypocrisy. As a civilization, we raise certain animals for to sole purpose of consumption. As a civilization, it is our responsibility to treat them humanely. Judging from this video, that obviously isn’t the practice. Sadly it isn’t the practice in many western slaughterhouses either. Human beings really are crummy, in that even though we have the capacity to treat animals with dignity, respect and love we seldom do. The point being that there is no reason to eat a dog or a cat, no matter how culturally acceptable it is because there is no real need for it anymore. Is there?

Although the ‘meat is meat’ argument follows a stream of (flawed)logic than how far are we willing to go? If meat is indeed meat what is to stop us from consuming one another? Why not? I hear baby peoples tastes like veal!
- Hools Verne
  
  “The point being that there is no reason to eat a dog or a cat, no matter how culturally acceptable it is because there is no real need for it anymore. Is there?”
  
  Any two animals could be put in place of dog or cat in this sentence and the argument would still be the same.
firebus

i agree with everyone here. there’s no difference between eating a dog and eating a cow. cows are adorable and loyal. whatever.

it’s a racist story by CNN. anyone could make the same story (with even more disgusting images) about american slaughterhouses.
Anonymous

“where dogs can understand human emotion better than any other non-human animal can”

This is an interesting point of view, but I’m not so sure of its validity–particularly when we use such words as “understand” (though I know what you’re getting at). Have you interacted with dogs in, say, Guatemala? I have, and they don’t spend much time wagging their tails with “puppy-dog eyes”. They’re too busy digging through garbage like raccoons or, uh, wild pigs, and they’ll either run or attack if you approach them. Now, you might argue that these dogs are the exception, because their behavior was shaped by their environment, but then can’t we say the same for cats and dogs domesticated in the U.S.? To what extent are the effects of gradual domestication now actually codified within the genetic material of the domesticated animal?

I do believe our domestication of (i.e., relationship with) certain animals does indeed influence their evolution, but this is something that would ostensibly require a huge timespan. Also, could a single pig in its lifetime learn how to give us “oinky pig” eyes if we stopped fattening it up in enclosed pens for mass consumption? Especially if it made associations between “oinky pig” fawning behavior and preferential treatment.
RevEng

I’m with everyone else. What’s the difference? I wouldn’t personally eat dog or cat, because it would be difficult for me to eat something that I normally keep as a pet, but I see no intrinsic reason why eating cats or dogs should be strictly prohibited, yet chicken, cow, pig, and hundreds of other animals are fair game.

Livestock and pets should both be treated humanely, right up until they die. If they die to become your dinner, so be it.
I less than three mermaids

Have none of you seen Pulp Fiction?
Anonymous

I couple years ago I watched an old video that began with an interview with a man from the Amazon. He was one of several people who a handful of European Surrealists chose to invite to France as part of an artistic shindig. On his last day there, he asked them to have a meal with him where dog was served. They obliged. It was an interesting interview.

The next part of the video took place in the present day. The man’s community had a dog, which they killed and ate on camera. They had a pet dog as well, which they allowed to eat scraps from the meal.

While it was much harder to accept what took place in the second half of the video than the first half, theoretically they are both on par. If you’re fine with people talking about eating dog, you ought to be fine with people eating dog.

I’m still undecided.
Nater

Ban dog meat, but I can still eat Babe? Fine. Lassie tasted like crap anyway. I think carrots are pretty cute. Not cabbage though. Next it’ll be a ban on killing Cheezeburgers because of those lolcats bastards.

Re #15, I reckon dogs are probably as smart as dolphins…I mean, all dolphins do is get stuck in tuna nets and go eheheh in swimming pools. And not that cute, kinda more slimy, so I say can em like the dumb ugly fish they are. If they were really smart, they’d snack on trainers like that Orca did.

Seriously though, how are we going to gauge the cuteness scale anywho? Eye size and liquidiness? Bent ear ‘ohhhhh CUTE!!1!’ factor? If you can’t add a lol caption to a pic, you can eat it? For frick sake, it’s meat. Eat it or don’t, but a little consistancy would be nice. Reminds me of the religious debate a little…

This is so “look at the funny foreigners, they eat DOGS OMG!! haha gross”
the Other michael

I’m similarly confused by the horse-meat ban recently enacted in the US.

They’re made of meat, people. Meat is meat.
Anonymous

I propose that we eat vegetarians. They must taste like veal with added zeal for all that spiel about purity.
Anonymous

In principle, eating dog or cat is no different than eating any other domesticated animal, but in practice I’ve heard that dog slaughtering is intentionally cruel (I recently read an account of a Korean-american’s recollection of watching the family dog being skinned alive in front of him when his father took it to the local butcher; and have read a fair number of western travelers’ anecdotes of seeing dogs clubbed to death in chinese street markets) because the gamey taste of adrenaline is supposedly preferred in dog meat.

I’m not sure how common the practice actually is, but if it is widespread, then torturing ANY animals to death (yes, I know that many people will have you believe that every western meat animal ever to end up on your plate has similarly been tortured to death, despite the work of people like Temple Grandin) should rightfully be outlawed. If one sort of livestock is inextricably linked to this type of butchering, then outlawing its’ consumption outright seems like the right thing to do.
Anonymous

Ok this is shocking,I understand what some people are saying about meat is meat….but are you really comparing your family companion that grows up with your children,guards your home and greets you with joy when you get beck from work to …the pigs/cows in the pen out back? Really, is this not absurd? I can not believe that anyone that has had a relationship with a dog could say this…even from the beginning of time, man did not have the family pig or cow protecting his campfire,it was his loyal friend,man’s best friend!For these dogs to suffer so horribly is unconscionable and shameful!!
JonStewartMill

Why not eat cats and dogs? If the situation were reversed, you can bet they’d eat *you*.

Actually, I read somewhere that a dog won’t eat its [dead] owner until it’s near starvation, while a cat will tuck in much sooner. Who else is unsurprised by this?
dculberson

Hmm, I figured at least one person would be all “ooooh no little kitty cats!!” I love cats and dogs, but still don’t find the eating of them to be barbaric.

Reminds me of an “expose” that showed how horrible some Chinese importers were because they would label things that were made of “REAL cat or REAL dog fur” as being rabbit fur. Other than allergies I couldn’t see any reason why cat fur would be worse than rabbit fur.
Hools Verne

I totally agree with the sentiment that this is bullshit racism. However, when it comes to the simple “meat is meat” argument I have to wonder if that absolute as a justification for cultural relativism would extend to cannibalism. Industrial farming in the Western world is terribly fucked and has no moral high ground, certainly. Once we remove intelligence and sentimental attachments as qualifiers though, what exactly is there to make eating other humans wrong? Consent can;t be it, since I know of know animal that consents to be eaten. Health is certainly an issue, but as has been pointed out all meat carries varying degrees of health issues so that seems out too.
tumblingwall

Total hypocrisy on the side of those offended, and cowardice on those trying to ban it.
So what if other cultures are grossed out? Much of the world does not eat pork for religious reasons. When the french fast food chain Quick made its food Hallal, non-muslim French boycotted the chain.
In the end, all meat is dead animals. If you are not comfortable eating something cute, maybe you should reconsider the other living things you are eating.

To be fair the journalist did hint at the chance some are captured pets. Where are the statistics? The sources? The journalism? There is so much wrong with this clip.
Tatoruso

The only amazing/dsiturbing thing on that video is that chinese cook taking the boiling pot off the fire to the table WITH BARE HANDS. Freaky!
Anonymous

pulp fiction
personality goes a long way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0zJSgHDnpw
Powell

Amazing. Most of the comments here dont see the problem with this, “Meat is meat”, etc. Is this boingboing or 4chan? You bunch of ghouls. I hope you choke on your meat.
- Powerphail
  
  Meat is meat, I don’t eat any of it, but it’s still meat.
  
  If you don’t have any problem with eating pigs, cows or chickens then you’re a hypocrite if you have a problem with eating cats or dogs.
- theawesomerobot
  
  Have you ever met a pig before? They’re astonishingly similar to dogs.
- Anonymous
  
  please tell me the difference between a cat and a cow? A dog and a duck? There all animals. Either eat them or don’t. Assigning worth to one over another is hypocrisy.
- Matt J
  
  To clarify, I’m opposed to the eating of meat, but I’m more opposed to ‘animal-loving’ meat-eating hypocrisy.
cdjaco

I love Fluffy, I love Skipper….Meow Mix Meat Market, do you deliver?
Exploto

Onkelchrispy: No! If they did that, they would! In the mean time, I’m going to get back to farming humans for their milk and eggs.
- onkelchrispy
  
  Exploto: As the risk of getting off track, I suggest you take a good long look at China’s poor history of human/civil rights, as well as their less than spectacular treatment of the environment. While I agree China has given birth to many important things spiritually/artistically, it has also been the birthplace of much intolerance.
  
  Try asking the eleven Siberian tigers that died from starvation/malnutrition in a Chinese zoo what they think of Confucianism, or perhaps they are hanging in the window at the butcher shop?
  
  Most cultures, especially us here in the western world have a checkered past with piss-poor histories of how we treat this planet and our fellow inhabitants. None of us are coming close to being light years ahead of one another, except for maybe the Inuit.