We recently had a case in New Zealand about a family barbequing thier pet dog to eat.  The SPCA were horrified by the families actions.

The family, of Tongan decent, were acting within the customs that they grew up with. 

The dog was adopted from relations and became "unruly" so they made the decision to eat it.   The Pitbull cross was killed humanely and then prepared as a roast.

What do you think about eating dogs?  

Is it ok when a family is hungry as per Tongan culture, or is always morally wrong as per Western culture?

Alllllrighty then . . . no one wanted to touch this topic!

There are many cultures (I am unfamiliar with the Tongan's) in our big world. Some eat all animals, some eat none.

I would never even consider living in a culture where people could just bbq up Rover on Sunday afternnon.  BUT consider this: in CIVILIZED cultures (USA and others) animals are treated horribly their whole lives and then slaughtered in inhumane ways (you can see videos online if you don't believe me). . . all so the meat industry makes its money. ugh!

Over the years I have become almost a complete vegetarian---on rare occasions I eat fish or organic meats. At least when I consume organic meats I know that the animals were not treated unkindly just to fill someones belly! More & more I don't even want to eat meat at all---you kinda lose the liking of the taste.

So, hope this wasn't considered off topic. Its just what came up for me.

Yeah I hear that. 

I am not a fan of factory produced meat myself.

Not only is horrid on the animals, but eating the meat isn't good for humans.

Fortunately we live on a farm and produce much of our own, so I know the animals were well looked after and they are not pumped full of growth enhancing chemical.

I guess with the original news item it struck me as absurd that a dog which has gone awol should not be eaten by this poor immigrant family (something they wouldn't even have thought twice about at home). We kick up a big stink about that, but people who allow (even encourage) thier dogs to be vicious are not punished when those dogs attack innocent bystanders.

Top Dog,

Thank you thank you thank you for your awesome post!!!!!

My feelings exactly!

So great you can raise your own stock. And YES! people do not realize the harm they do to their bodies by eating the flesh of tortured animals.

Pssst can you tell I'm PASSIONATE about this?? Have you seen the videos of the new way of raising pigs?  U n b e l i e v a b l e. Bacon was the hardest food for me to surrender. I still look longingly at it in the mkt----but then I remember the show I saw about the pigs---that kicks the craving pretty fast for me.

Actually they are having a big campaign down here at the moment to get the pig farms cleaned up.  It is generally a small number that have poor conditions so it is time they were sorted.

My pork comes from them thar hills and is 100% natural. Not as fatty grain feed pork either. But I guess that is a little beyond the capabilities of the general public to go hunting for their own meat.