Jason
01-29-2006, 07:54 PM
The Chinese Year of the Dog dawns on Sunday, but it brings mixed fortunes for man's best friend in a culture where people increasingly keep canines as pets while others condemn them to the cooking pot.
Once banned as a bourgeois luxury, pet ownership is becoming big business in China and, with one in every nine Chinese now owning a dog, they are beginning to enjoy the status of pampered pooches in some other parts of Asia.
Owners from Taipei to Tokyo spend thousands of dollars on their furry friends at grooming parlors which offer pedicures, acupuncture and massages along with a more usual coat trim.
Dogs there even have their own cafes, funeral homes and schools.
But they remain the lucky ones.
Canines are still commonly eaten as a delicacy in China and Chinese communities around Asia. Others are skinned alive for their fur to make trimming for clothing and fashion accessories.
Up to 10 million dogs are slaughtered every year in China, many killed slowly and cruelly to supposedly enhance the meat's flavor, according to Jill Robinson, founder and C.E.O. of the Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation.
"People's attitudes have been changing over the past 15 years, but China is still the world's biggest consumer of dogs," says Robinson.
In northern China large dogs such as St. Bernards and Tibetan mastiffs were being crossbred with local dogs to create fast-growing, large-meat dogs that could be slaughtered as young as four months old, she says.
Even in cosmopolitan cities such as Beijing, dog restaurants remain part of the cityscape, most popular in winter as dog meat is supposed to keep you warm and tastes like beef, according to those who have tried it.
Skinning of live dogs for fur also takes place in China, mainly because it helps preserve the skin of the canines, according to animal activists.
Want to learn more?
http://animal.discovery.com/news/afp/20060123/canines.html?source= rss
Once banned as a bourgeois luxury, pet ownership is becoming big business in China and, with one in every nine Chinese now owning a dog, they are beginning to enjoy the status of pampered pooches in some other parts of Asia.
Owners from Taipei to Tokyo spend thousands of dollars on their furry friends at grooming parlors which offer pedicures, acupuncture and massages along with a more usual coat trim.
Dogs there even have their own cafes, funeral homes and schools.
But they remain the lucky ones.
Canines are still commonly eaten as a delicacy in China and Chinese communities around Asia. Others are skinned alive for their fur to make trimming for clothing and fashion accessories.
Up to 10 million dogs are slaughtered every year in China, many killed slowly and cruelly to supposedly enhance the meat's flavor, according to Jill Robinson, founder and C.E.O. of the Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation.
"People's attitudes have been changing over the past 15 years, but China is still the world's biggest consumer of dogs," says Robinson.
In northern China large dogs such as St. Bernards and Tibetan mastiffs were being crossbred with local dogs to create fast-growing, large-meat dogs that could be slaughtered as young as four months old, she says.
Even in cosmopolitan cities such as Beijing, dog restaurants remain part of the cityscape, most popular in winter as dog meat is supposed to keep you warm and tastes like beef, according to those who have tried it.
Skinning of live dogs for fur also takes place in China, mainly because it helps preserve the skin of the canines, according to animal activists.
Want to learn more?
http://animal.discovery.com/news/afp/20060123/canines.html?source= rss