Whose God is it anyways? posted a tip so arresting, I had to read it for myself…and then inflict it upon you. 😀 Blame him, he started it! Via The Telegraph:
Packs of stray dogs which roam the streets of New Delhi should be rounded up and sent to Korea for making soup, one of the city’s exasperated councillors has suggested.
Wow, that’s some level of exasperation. Any Delhi-area mutineers want to chime in about this?
India’s capital is suffering from a 300,000-strong plague of feral dogs who scavenge the city’s open rubbish dumps, hunting in packs and terrorising cyclists and pedestrians who venture into the city at night.
At a meeting to canvass measures to curb stray dog numbers ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games one local councillor, Mohan Prashad Bharadwaj, ventured the “Korean option” after saying he’d read that nation was fond of dog-meat.
Um, I guess that’s…innovative.
A dog-meat soup called boshintang is popular in Korea, especially on the three “dog days” of summer on the lunar calendar. Koreans believe the meat helps boost stamina and virility.
I swear, every unique food is meant to be the culinary equivalent to wiagra. This next idea is so funny, it’s cute:
Another councillor wondered if the dogs could be drugged during daylight hours “so that they keep sleeping all day long” while a third suggested rounding up the animals and trucking them into the countryside.
The extreme nature of the suggestions reflects a growing impatience with the city’s inability to combat the stray dog menace after it emerged that a three-year sterilisation drive advocated by animal rights activists had failed.
When I first read this article, I wondered about the “Bob Barker“-option, i.e. spaying and neutering…until I got to that part.
Mindful of Mahatma Gandhi’s adage that “a country is known by the way it treats its animals” the city is hoping to avoid the kind of brutal cull that Athens resorted to ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games.
So shipping dogs to Korea for soup is a better way for India to be known? Not judging, just surprised, that’s all.
However the dogs are a serious health hazard, with more than 200 Delhi residents dying every year from rabies contracted through dog bites.
Yeah, I don’t think drugging them during the daylight hours or shipping them off to the “country” (wtf, like people in rural areas are immune to rabies?) is going to work. It’ll be interesting to see how this gets resolved.
i love that americans act like eating dog is n*sty. think indian food is messed up, then eat ground cow. i mean, its food. it wouldnt be a countrys natonal food if at some level it wasnt tasty.
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Oh my god, really!? Is nothing sacred anymore?
Just discovered on my recent visit to India that some Hindus still perform animal sacrifices during Kali puja – even in South India. My aunt’s driver and his kin performed a sacrifice in a local temple. There was nothing I could to do or say to dissaude him. He says that his family has been doing this for generations. I am still very disallusioned and very, very upset by this discovery. I guess I can’t claim anymore that (South Indian)Hindus only sacrifice coconuts during pujas.
Regarding stray dogs, Hyderabad seemed fairly free of stray dogs as far as I could I tell. I wonder what method they are using for feral dog control.
How would you feel if I tried to dissuade you from interfering in others’ religious practices?
M. Nam
Plastic bags ( of a certain thickness) were banned in Delhi,Pune and other municipalities. When I visited India last, vegetable sellers did NOT offer plastic bags to customers in the city that I was in . Therefore I must assume that there are positive changes.Pune,India has an active composting treatment for the last few years and uses vermiculture for food scraps that are gathered separately( something that my town here in the US has just started this year). Change is happening, but slowly.May I gently remind everyone that we are talking of a 3rd world country with 1 billion+ population so to expect its sanitation to keep up with the US – a first world country with 300 million people is unrealistic.
I was referring to this kind of culture specific horror in an earlier comment here. .While no one would say that they hate animals or advocate actual cruelty towards them, its not right to adopt a holier-than-thou attitude towards other countries/cultures just because their practices towards killing animals for meat are not the same as yours. The only ones who can afford some moral superiority are vegetarians – who I have the utmost respect for. I tried to become one and failed!
Camille, I am aware of slaughterhouse horrors. It is individuals who make a difference. Laws are on the books, but people must care if they are to be enforced. It is hard for people to care when their own survival is uncertain, thus poor countries care less about animals. Also, education helps. In Paris it was once a custom to burn stray cats in a wicker hamper. Then Louis XV’s Polish born queen, Marie LeszczyÅ„ska, who loved cats, put a stop to it. Then, this was an era when humans were sometimes burned at the stake.
Totally disagreed. I think norms vary, but I don’t think that people in poor countries somehow “care less” about animals. You could not explain why there is persistent domestic animal abuse in the U.S. (non-farm domestic animals, I mean). Also, I included factory farming because, unlike the slaughterhouse (which is a clear image of a killing ground), domesticated animals used in meat and dairy production are often kept in squalid, disgusting conditions. I understand your point re: personal mores, but I do think animal-relations are an arena in which cultural relativism is a logical explanation.
My favorite dish is called “Missionary Stew”. It is a rare delicacy since it is illegal to hunt them. I prefer the type made from Southern Baptists as they taste better than New England Presbyterian. 😉