Dog Food

So, you guys know that  the Chinese (at least on some parts of China) eat about everything, no? I’ve read that in Guangzhou, Cantonese cuisine, they eat ‘everything that has four legs but a table, everything that flies but an aeroplane and everything that swims but a submarine’. So, yeah, anything really.

They eat dog food. I got to realise this on my first day in Guilin when I saw a guy on a motorbike carrying three dead dogs on the back of the motorbike. If you’ve ever been to China town in London, you might have seen ducks hanging from restaurants in a brownish/reddish colour, no? Same here. I think they burn the skin and hair so that’s the colour they acquire. Shame that I had my camera packed away and couldn’t take a picture.

So, on my visit to Yangshou, I could see a bit more of this,

Yep, that’s dog meat for sale

but apparently it gets worse (if you don’t like to look at this, don’t go to Chinese street markets). They have cages with dogs and cats (alive) at the market, just like they have small pools with fishes that you can buy in European markets.

Now, to me seeing this is pretty shocking, as I only see dogs and cats as pets. It kind of horrifies to see this, but, well, they are animals and this is their culture,who am I to judge?. Who are we to say what can be eaten or not? right?. We have bull fighting in Spain and that’s frown upon in many other countries, so…

Anyway, I tried to get some opinions from locals about dog food. Whether it was good, a delicacy and what people thought about it. I failed at getting answers/opinions. I don’t know if it’s because they are shy, they considered it taboo or they are tired/annoyed by westerners’ questions.

But, interestingly, I saw this woman protesting int the centre of Guilin against dog and cat being slaughtered…

eating cats and dogs a national shame?

People were looking curiously at this woman…

What do you guys think? I find it interesting, not particularly affected by it, not particularly against it.