Before leaving for Hanoi, my mom told me that the Vietnamese ate dog meat. At that point of time & when I was in Hanoi, I was open to trying it if I ever chanced upon such an establishment there. During that time, it didn’t occur to me how dogs would be killed. My mind didn’t connect the dots; isolating the act of killing from that of serving up the meat on a plate.
Until 10 minutes ago. An ex-colleague shared a youtube video on Facebook that documented how dogs were transported, held captive, murdered & cooked. I didn’t have the heart to finish watching the clip & gave up when the murderer held up a club, ready to brutally bludgeon a captive dog fighting for its life, to death.
While it would have been a once in a lifetime experience to taste dog meat, it is one experience in life that I can do without. If anything, watching that video has reaffirmed my belief that we do not need to consume foods outside of our normal food groups.
The brutality involved, especially against Man’s best friend makes us, as human beings unworthy of their doggie love. Furthermore, there is no valid reason for such inane, mindless killings. Regardless of the reasons for eating dog meat (to keep warm in winter etc), alternatives are readily available which do not justify the innocent loss of dog lives.
I never thought I’d ever say this but the thought of going vegetarian suddenly doesn’t seem that bad now.
That and I’ve never been more ashamed than now to be a Chinese. Singaporean Chinese nonetheless, but still unfortunately, Chinese.
