vonFiedler
I Like Chopin
Meat eating is only discouraged in certain sects of Buddhism, in fact Buddha himself ate meat and allowed his monks to do so. For a Buddhist monk, humility is a priority over vegetarianism when you have to live off the kindness of others. Still, dog is a forbidden meat to them.Well... Buddhism didn't specifically forbid dog meat, but all meats are discouraged in Buddhism anyway. Moreover, if you are a monk, you are expected to be strictly vegan.
But that's the crux of the problem with modern animal rights activism. Either you're a weak willed vegetarian, or you're a heartless meat eater. And that's bullshit.I acknowledge that to most Westerners, dogs are kept as pets so you have this special feeling towards dogs. That's why you feel you should oppose dog meat instead of pig's meat.
But if you think deeper, it really isn't a logical thing to set a difference between dogs and pigs.
To be honest, I find it completely hilarious how some Westerners aren't vegetarian but oppose dog meat.
I don't harbor the same feeling towards vegetarians. I admire them. There are many times that I tried being vegetarian.
But saying that something is bad, whilst doing something that's equally as bad, is so funny. It feels like you have double-standard too.
Livestock pigs can't be pets. They aren't work animals. They couldn't exist in the wild. We can't decide to make pigs not livestock animals. That decision was made for us thousands of years ago. So the least we owe pigs is a right to a comfortable life and a painless death. And that's not a battle even close to over anywhere in the world; certainly not in America where states are currently passing laws to prosecute whistle-blowers.
But to a modern factory farm owner it's all the same as your views towards dogs. If I was a vegetarian then so what, I have nothing to offer them. But if I complain about animals being buried alive, overcrowded, and beaten, they think "oh, but you aren't a vegetarian eh?". If these kinds of activities weren't strictly illegal than we could do nothing about it most likely; but even if they can't change those laws they are instead making it easier and easier to legally hide their activities.
For the three countries where dog eating is actually a common occurrence, only one of them partake in livestock dogs, and I suspect those dogs are adequately intelligent enough to integrate into other forms of life. For an animal that works or is a pet, we owe them basic rights to life. That's a controversial viewpoint even in the west, where stray dogs are slaughtered by the thousands, dogs are put to death over minor crimes and killed with impunity by police officers, and given assisted suicides like it ain't no thing (whether dogs are humans are getting the raw deal here is another debate). It is merely a compromise to ask that these animals aren't needlessly harvested for food, and South Koreans agree. One of the most famous dog restaurants is closing today.
Hell, even the Chinese words for dogs show the fundamental problem here. You have one word for beloved dogs, and a different one for the types of dogs that are strays. It's the later category that is reviled and used as food. This isn't unique to the east, dogs were treated much the same way in early America. But the problem of strays is one that humans are responsible for. It's no different than hating the homeless; it solves nothing and only lets you sleep at night better.
But as much as you think feelings seem to be the crux of my argument, this seems to be the crux of yours (and no offense, but it seems to be the subject of many threads you post). I am not mocking your race. I am only trying to protect animals. We ourselves have neglected this in the past. We are better, but still falter now. Meanwhile the growing sentiment in Asian countries is anti-dog eating. This, like all inalienably righteous causes, does not run west to east, it runs past to future.Not that I eat dogs. But it certainly isn't something I would oppose neither. And I truly get annoyed when my race gets mocked for doing it.
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