New Mandala

15 responses so far ↓

• 1 Richard // Apr 27, 2007 at 10:57 am

  As a dog lover, I would just like to inform you, that without having any kind of warning of what I was going to see as I scrolled down, I am now left traumatized and morbidly disgusted.

  When I get home tonight my dog is getting a few extra dog treats for no reason whatsoever.

• 2 Sarah // Jul 23, 2008 at 6:01 pm

  The worst thing about the consumption of dog and cat meat in Asia is the myths about eating it. Because adrenaline is believed to make the meat more potent for the person eating it, like Stacker or Viagra or something of the sort, the animals are basically tortured to death.
  Cats are boiled alive to make cat soup. It’s a horrible process where the cat screams and tries to escape. It takes up to ten minutes for the animal to die.
  Dogs on the other hand, are either beaten to death in a sack or on the street, or are hung from a tree and beaten to death. Sometimes they are still alive when the fur is burned off of them with a blow torch.
  The longer it takes the animal to die, the more adrenaline in the meat, so the goal is to make them suffer as long as you can before their body gives out on them.
  Fur from the cats and dogs are marked as rabbit, raccoon or fox and sold around the world, even in the U.S.
  While this is not a site about Vietnam, http://www.koreananimals.org is a place where you can learn more about the plight of animals in Asian countries. You can also google it or read more at http://www.HSUS.org.

• 3 Jenn // Aug 3, 2008 at 11:21 am

  I wish I was given a warning. I have completely lost the desire to eat for days. I love animals and this is flat out disgusting and cruel!!!! My cat is getting extra portions tonight and will get more attention from now on.

  I will never eat Asian food again!!!

• 4 Charles F. // Aug 3, 2008 at 1:35 pm

  Cat tastes kind of stringy.

• 5 Nudle // Aug 3, 2008 at 5:18 pm

  i hate seeing these photos, i am asian myself and i am embarrass wat is going on. As an animal lover myself .i am disguisted with how many people love to see animal tortured just for their own sake. SHAME ON THEM. I have 4 dogs and a rabbit, and i am glad my pets are save and love.

  We need to help stop animal cruelty by supporting the RSPCA and WSPCA or any other animal organisation….Toegether we can do so much. HELP STOP CRUELTY!!!!!!

• 6 Lleij Samuel Schwartz // Aug 4, 2008 at 1:22 am

  Re: Richard, et al.

  Yes, how dare people eat different food than we eat!!!

• 7 kathy // Aug 4, 2008 at 6:27 am

  that is disgusting…these animals have feelings…these people to me are next to murderers
  just disgusting

• 8 Charles F. // Aug 4, 2008 at 3:03 pm

  Opossums, cattle, pigs, monkeys, cats, dogs, guinea pigs, snakes, rats, baboons, alligators, sharks - eaten all over the world by different people and cultures.
  Really, the only way to eat cat is to grill it real good, then smother it in tabasco sauce. And be really, really hungry.
  Rat on a stick actually isn’t too bad. I believe there’s a youtube video of it being prepared and eaten in Viet Nam.
  Babboon is rubbery tasting.

  Bon appetit!!!

• 9 tari // Aug 4, 2008 at 3:49 pm

  Having been an expat in laos for several years and living in close proximity to a vietnamese dog farm where dogs were unfortunatley beaten to death for adrenal production, coming to terms with this method has been extremely hard.

  Many friends, both expat and lao have had their dogs stolen and we all knew what happened to them and knowing that your pet and companion ended their lives this way is very traumatic.

  While some people in some cultures treat animals this way, it is not ALL asian cultures, and indeed, not ALL Vietnamese or Chinese or Korean’s etc. Additionally, not all people who eat cat or dog treat these animals with cruelty and slaughter their animals as efficiently and painlessly as possible.

  Around the world different cultures view the same animals as pets or a source of food and while eating Fluffy the cat, or Bruno the dog is distasteful to some, they are an essential food source for many people facing severe food security issues.

  Education against cruelty to animals is a very much underfunded but much needed area, particularly within developing nations. The introduction and enforcement of laws preventing this cruelty is a world wide issue.

  I would ask this. Is cruelty to animals worse when it is carried out as part of an ingrained cultural belief, taught from birth, where people do not perceive the action as cruel or illegal… Or when it occurs in a society where laws exist to prevent cruelty to animals but where industry regulations allow the inhumane treatment of battery hens, labratory animals, the trapping, poisoning and hunting of animals, pig pens and farrowing crates where pregnant pigs must lie on cold hard concrete floors…

  Have a look at what we do to our own mass produced food sources and I think you’d also be turned off your food.

• 10 nganadeeleg // Aug 4, 2008 at 6:54 pm

  Tari: I think the answer to your question is that both are equally ignorant and there’s no point arguing who is worse - IMO, they are equally as bad.

• 11 tari // Aug 4, 2008 at 7:29 pm

  I believe that we (Australia) are NOT ignorant, or at least, we have absolutely no excuse to be ignorant of how the meat on our table has been treated. We have a long history of animal welfare dating back (policy wise) to 1822 when the first act against cruelty to farm animals was passed in Britain and the flow on effect to Australia in the early 1870’s when the (now) RSPCA saw its first beginings.

  Animal rights is still a fairly new concept in many developing countries and I struggle against the revolution and anger I feel towards those that cause harm to any animal, and expecting other cultures to do in a few decades, what we have taken (well) over 180 years to do. There’s no quick and easy answer to this issue and comments such as “I will never eat Asian food again” do nothing for a healthy debate.

• 12 Stephen // Aug 4, 2008 at 9:27 pm

  One response to the mistaken assumption that westerners have a stronger sense of animal rights than Asians is the following quote (taken from Gustaaf Houtaman’s 1990 PhD thesis, p.29):

  In the year 1885, the foreigners had already captured King Thi-baw. When the Le-di Hsa-ya-daw learnt that Burma was likely to be governed by foreigners, the following occurred to this Noble Great monk. “If foreigners are to rule Burma, it will cause many terrestrial animals to be killed and destroyed. The reason is that western foreigners are the type of people who have appetite for enormous quantities of meat. If they arrive in Burma, they will set up killing factories of cows, of pigs, of goats, where so many such creatures will meet their death.” After musing thus, he spoke the following to the monks: “Monks, the foreigners are about to rule Burma now. When they rule, many creatures are likely to die. Among these creatures, it is the cow that is the saviour of man’s life. This animal is both our mother as well as our father, and mankind is much in debt with them. Therefore, from this day onwards, I shall not eat cow’s meat, and please I implore you not to eat it either.”

• 13 Hla Oo // Aug 4, 2008 at 11:05 pm

  (Thanks Stephen, you enlighten me. That must be the origin of our common belief in Burma. Following is taken from the novel “A Boy Soldier” p.9)

  Our little town also had a sizeable population of Muslims and a large community of Christians. Most Muslims were the descendants of Indian immigrants from the subcontinent during the colonial times and the Christians were the local ethnic tribe of Kayins and some Chinese traders. The large and only mosque of the town was right across the wide street from our big house. The memories I had of the mosque and its people were the annual slaughtering of a large number of cattle inside the mosque. After the ritual slaughters they always gave away the raw, fresh, and still bloodied beef to the neighboring households including ours.

  We Burmese didn’t eat beef for the religious reason and also because of the belief that we owed the cattle a lot, for they were the crucial part of growing and harvesting the rice crop. Only time we had a beef dish in our house was when my grandmother cooked a tasty chili beef curry out of the raw meat distributed free by the Muslims every year during the Ramadan festival celebrating the end of their month-long fast. Whenever I saw a distinctly bearded Muslim man or a head-to-toe burqa-covered Muslim woman out on the streets I always felt a mouth-watering taste of my grandma’s hot and spicy chili beef curry inside my mouth.

• 14 Senta // Aug 14, 2008 at 11:23 am

  This dog picture is awefil my seven year old was looking on line to look @ dogs or puppies and then she sees a picture from vietnam and dog eating?!!!!!! That’s so wrong that this is where a child c&n see!

• 15 Charles F. // Aug 15, 2008 at 9:18 am

  Your child needs to realize that not every culture has access to McDonald’s or Burger King.
  These people eat dogs because they need some protein in their diet, not because they hate dogs.

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