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Kudos to one New Delhi city councilor for coming up with a creative — and tasty — solution to the city’s stray dog problem. (HT to reader)
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38 Comments
I wonder how koreans would react to indian dog on their plates? My guess is they wouldn’t touch it. Ever told a Korean how delicious Indian food is - you get a few chuckles, some looks of horror, and a handful of odd side-glances. India is dirty. Indian dog?
Most Korean meat dogs are chained on short chains all day and thus forced (against their instinct) to live in their own urine and feces. This is why most develop the pathology of eating their own feces.
This fact is well known, hence the Korean term Ddong-gae or “shit dog” for the dogs they consider proper to eat.
Since this well known fact does not put dog meat lovers off any more than the equally well-known truths about how cruelly the animals are killed, I don’t see how the Indian provenance of dog meat would pose a problem.
Herod, certain breeds of house dogs eat their own shit even when they’re very well fed.
The Poms do this. I’ve seen ONE.
the Jindo doesn’t when well fed. I’ve seen ONE.
Sample size = 2.
Poms are cute, but too hairy, too loud, thinks itself to be still as big as its ancestor breed, and is honestly a dirtier dog who doesn’t groom as well. Be aware.
I kind of became annoyed by these dogs designed to substitute for cats.
Right, wjk, coprophagy often occurs among highly strung house dogs when they do not get enough chances to go out, yet are still scolded by owners for soiling the flat.
Anyway, the clear Korean division between the shit-dog and the purebred (who is now referred to as a gangaji or puppy despite his age) is to a large degree a compensatory fiction of people who want to eliminate the cognitive dissonance between loving their own dog and eating dog meat. Besides, larger purebreds like the Jindo and even the Great Dane are often eaten for their meat here; you often see them in cages on the back of pickup trucks in the summer months.
And temporary imbalances between the supply of and trend-driven demand for certain purebreeds occasionally lead to purebreeds being cheaper to buy than mongrels. This is why so many cocker spaniels were eaten a few years back.
Anyway: because an animal’s diet has an indisputable influence on its taste (which is why steak connoisseurs want a grass-fed cow), I think the fecal diet of the meat dog has been an integral part of the popularity of dog meat. A dog raised without eating its own feces wouldn’t taste right. It’s indirect coprophagy, but hey, to each his own.
‘I think the fecal diet of the meat dog has been an integral part of the popularity of dog meat. A dog raised without eating its own feces wouldn’t taste right. It’s indirect coprophagy, but hey, to each his own.’ herod
yeah, americans eat shit tainted meat all the time. It’s indirect coprophagy, but hey, to each his own.
有恨?
Got any proof of that, bird boy, or is it just another self-evident product of your infallible han?
Actually, Pawi is right. The primary source of Salmonella, Campylobacter, Escherichia coli, and other foodborne pathogens on poultry and meat is animal feces, which constantly make it past food inspectors.
It’s no doubt much safer (and if Robert is to be believed) much tastier to eat animal feces in predigested form, i.e. in the form of dog meat. Though if you think Korean inspection of dog meat is rigorous…it’s the ultimate shady back-street meat.
And such pathogens are how common in foods that are actually consumed?
More common than you think, Sperwer. Many groups in the US are pushing the USDA to do a better job of inspecting meat, which is commonly contaminated also with rat urine and feces, cat feces, etc, due to rats infesting warehouses, cats being used to catch the rats etc. Needless to say, no one is eager to draw attention to these issues. Look what happened to Oprah.
As for how commonly these pathogens cause diseases - not very.
So ignore the alarmist talk. If you cook your meat properly, you should be okay. And remember that the Bedouins occasionally eat camel feces straight!
My original point was only that dog feces are an integral part of the dog meat taste, so that Koreans would probably not turn up their noses at animals simply because they come from what is perceived as a dirty country, i.e. India.
Only: an Indian dog would undoubtedly have consumed more human feces, since it is still common in India for people to do their business by the side of the road. This might offend Koreans, who prefer their dogs to be raised on dog feces. But globalization is all about broadening one’s horizons.
Food for thought: “A series of tests conducted by Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, discovered far more fecal bacteria in the average American kitchen sink than on the average American toilet seat.”
But enough of this digusting talk.
See y’all down at the Fecal Beagle!
I’m reminded of a post I made on another thread some time ago about the fabled black pigs of Jejudo, whose meat reportedly derived its uncommon succulence from their being fed in the island’s latrine pits.
똥되지고기, anyone?
You’ve got my mouth watering, Ut Videam!!
Herod, the USDA is also staffed at management level with former and future meat industry personnel. That is the proverbial fox guarding the hen house since the agency will promote trade and profit over caution almost every time.
Unfortunately, despite the attempts of people like Theodore Roosevelt and others to regulate big business better, our government has been largely usurped by business concerns and the result is not democracy but a plutocracy that mimics democracy.
Elgin - Good point. If we feel superior to the Koreans just because their corruption is a little more blatant, we’re kidding ourselves.
Elgin, I’m so tired of hearing that line. Ever stop to think that people with industry experience might just be the experts in the field? Would you seriously prefer the FDA and USDA to be staffed with the likes of the alarmist Chicken Little nutjobs from CSPI? We’d all be subsisting on twigs and berries.
Far and away, the most common foodborne illness in the United States is obesity. That might have just a little to do with a safe and plentiful food supply, mightn’t it?
Hmm…dunno, Ut. Is the choice between a) compromised/bribed and b) alarmist chicken little really the only choice we have? In any case I’d rather have someone checking the meat who’s a little too picky than someone who doesn’t want to offend his future boss.
Then again, with the ground meat going into hamburgers (each of which can contain the meat of dozens of cows), I don’t know how you can check it properly. Every so often a kid dies - part of the price you pay for a cheap burger I guess.
Yes, I presented a false dilemma. Call it being deliberately ridiculous to spotlight the ridiculousness of the previous comment.
I haven’t seen any proof that the regulators are “compromised/bribed.” Of course, if you have such proof, please present it; but claiming they’re corrupt without proof is pretty offensive. And having a background in the industry does not equate to “the fox guarding the henhouse.”
“offensive”: Why offensive, Ut Videam? Do you work in the meat industry?
Anyway: “Every year in the U.S., there are 75 million cases of food poisoning. The USDA reports that 70 percent of food poisoning is caused by contaminated animal flesh. … According to a 2006 report by the nonprofit Food and Water Watch, the percentage of chicken carcasses in slaughterhouses that test positive for salmonella nearly doubled between 2000 and 2005. [But] the USDA, at the urging of the meat industry, decided in 2006 to reduce the number of slaughterhouses tested for salmonella.”
Now, that may not be corruption in the Korean way, i.e. fish boxes stuffed with cash and left in the bribee’s car trunk while you play golf with him. But it’s certainly corruption. Or is it less offensive to accuse your so-called “experts” of gross inefficiency? I’d hate to offend you.
UT, take a stroll on the internet. There is more than enough information out here to support my thesis. The U.S. meat industry has been very aggressive in stifling any legitimate concerns of safety by using everything from “astro-turf groups” to scientists that are on the payroll of the meat industry. Review closely what happened to Oprah Winfrey and many other whistle-blowers in the industry and it raises more than a little suspicion as to the motivation of how food safety and regulation is conducted in the U.S.
As a rule of thumb, when big money is involved, so is corruption. If there is an exemption to this rule, I can not think of it, sad to say.
Elgin: I agree. We Americans are not an especially stupid, lazy or inefficient people. So when you see long-term, systematic “oversight” or “inefficiency”, whether in the meat industry or in Iraq contracting, you can pretty much take it for granted that some people high up are making out like the bandits they are. (Sorry if that language offends some people here.) Whether the bribes take the form of cash-filled suitcases or campaign contributions etc is a minor point, no?
The Indian politician is blissfully unaware of Korean protectionism. I hate to bring this up, but I can see irate Korean dog farmers flinging puppy poo at poshintang-jip that have nerve to serve up Hindi Huskey. Not a pretty thought — and I hope we never live to see the day…
Tom: Correct me if I’m wrong, but there is no dog farmer lobby, simply a dog restaurant lobby. They could keep prices where they want even if the dog meat became cheaper, no?
I can’t imagine the dog meat itself costs much as it is. Chain a dog, feed it table scraps, let it eat its own feces to tide it over, drag it off when summer rolls around. I assume most of the cost comes from the labor involved in the transport & slow beating-to-death of it.
Of course, the Indian solution would be rejected, because the Koreans would see it as deeply humiliating. Even the ones who like their dog-meat, and feign defiance about it, still fly off the handle when they realize that for all the Hallyu hype, dog meat eating is still one of the two or three things that foreigners know about Korea.
The sh*ts really hit the fan now. There are like over 100 related articles to this now. Will someone stand-up and address the fact that dog meat is not a normal part of the Korean diet (okay, from what I hear it’s a normal part of the diet for Koreans living in China)?
From what I hear the main niche for dog meat in South Korea are older ajushis who think it’s natural viagra and the guilty pleasure of some foreigners.
Ever eat a carrot? Or an ear of corn? Mushrooms? It isn’t as if you haven’t sampled (and enjoyed) the pleasures of ‘indirect coprophagy’ (as you so elegantly put it) before, so get off the high horse. Shit is an insuperable part of the food cycle — whether you’re eating dog stew or an angel food cake, you can be pretty sure that basically every atom in that particular dish was a part of something’s shit (more likely, the feces of thousands of animals) in the past. Sure, dogs eat crap, but so do lots of other food animals — pigs, catfish (mmmm, catfish), lobster, rabbits…
#23 -
“There are like over 100 related articles to this now.”
Yup, it’s apparently been picked up by the wire services in their “Weird News” category. 100 articles is just the beginning.
Ouch! Wasn’t it Gandhi himself who said:
“the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be measured by the way its animals are treated”
I’m surprised noone challeged the tossaway line in the AP story that dog meat is “widely eaten” in Korea. That’s not really the case, is it?
first, you challenged me regarding korea’s winning of the imjin war. you contended that korea did nothing for it’s own defense. you’ll remember nobody agreed with your position.
then, you challenged me about koguryeo saying koguryeo isn’t part of korea’s timeline. i asked you to provide sources, you evaded and dithered until you finally produced a paper written by a non historian which had to be a joke.
now, you’ve challenged my contention that we got shit in our meat. lol.
you certainly got a lot of fancy words, sperwer. must be that first class education you got. HA!
i look forward to our next encounter.
Zonath -
Hmm, why so touchy and defensive? I said, to each his own. If people want to eat dog feces indirectly or directly, I don’t mind, though a little humaneness in killing the animals doesn’t seem too much to ask. (I like that Gandhi quote above.) My point (I repeat) was that that feces are such a big and well-known part of a chained or cooped-up dog’s diet that a) the feces contribute to the distinctive taste and b) Koreans would likely not reject Indian dogs on hygienic grounds.
As for “widely eaten”: dog meat eating is far, far more widespread here than the average young English teacher (who tends to hang out primarily with the sort of young, Western-oriented, college-educated Korean females who consider it 혐오 food) probably realizes.
You will have a hard time finding a Korean adult over 35 or with only a high school education who does not eat dog meat at least once a year.
On the other hand, dog meat eating is not as frequent as the foreign press thinks - it’s not as if people are eating the stuff every week.
michael vick’s life is going to the toilet, basically because he got caught fighting dogs.
I’m sure it’s a bit different from eating dogs, but I don’t think Koreans would approve of destroying a man’s life over animals.
But, I sort of would.
Americans don’t love their dogs and cats like they claim.
Just the other week, a drunken man who accidentally shot his cat claimed that the cat accidentally shot itself.
Take a look at the animal shelters in America and even Europe. Enough said.
The venerable man who wrote at kimsoft.com remarked that,
http://www.kimsoft.com/ysk-korea/ysk-korea.htm
YS Kim was a venerable man, who opened my eyes to a new world of knowledge. May he rest in peace.
I fought a dog once. It tore the shit out of my arm.
Funny that you should mention Michael Vick - who is looking at a minimum of a year in prison for his involvement in a dog-fighting ring - and then suggest that Americans don’t love their dogs and cats.
Wjk: Dogs are raised for sexual enjoyment in America?
Why do I get the feeling that you would find such a lunatic remark less “venerable” if it were made about Korea?
The deceased author of Kimsoft, probably not a native speaker of English, was unaware that the original meaning of the English word “bitch” was “female dog,” and apparently, so are you, wjk. It is precisely because of this original meaning that the word evolved into a general insult for a woman. It does not specifically imply sexual promiscuity but is simply a derogatory term.
herod, you totally ignored zonath’s point; we all eat shit laden food. you like vegetables?
没有. 你呢?
Why so touchy, pawi?? Man, you Koreans really seem schizophrenic about your dog-eating. On the one hand: “It’s our culture! It’s perfectly fine!” On the other hand: “Don’t you foreigners even talk about it! And please don’t think of dog-meat eating when you think of Korea!”
Do I have to remind you what my original point was? Do you disagree with it? If so, how? Are you saying that Koreans would indeed consider Indian dogs to be dirtier than feces-eating Korean dogs?
#29…
It really doesn’t seem like you have much of a point to make… Sure, if you want to really talk about ‘indirect coprophagy’ we could go on and on about how basically everything is raised on crap. If you’re really insinuating that Korean people like dog meat because they enjoy eating shit…. well, that’s just stupid.
once again, i see you avoided the real question, which tells me you wrote what you wrote to be offensive. got han?
‘有恨?’ 石鵝
‘没有. 你呢?’ 小雨
對君? 沒有.
ps can’t find ‘nee’ on my ime.