My 2 cents worth on dog fur

[sea4th]

Since I'm not able to access and see the thread on Penny's selling dog fur, I'm thinking the conversation might have drifted to how animals die in this country. While we have some pretty detestable conditions here, the stories told to me of how animals are treated in Asian countries makes my blood run cold.

 

Growing up in a multi nationality environment, I don't consider myself culturally insensitive. I know dogs are viewed differently in Asia and other parts of the world. I know they are farmed like livestock in Asia for fur and human consumption. While eating dog is not exactly my thing, I realize it is a different culture and different cultures have different palates. What my problem is, is the way (in this case, dogs) die.

 

Thank God, I wasn't the one to experience this, but just the retelling of this person's own experience while stationed in S. Korea, is close enough. A friend's husband was out on maneuvers and they camped out not too far from a dog farm. The screams coming from that farm haunt him to this day. Through him, they now haunt me.

 

Hanging dogs in the village center and skinning them while they are alive. Entertainment.

 

I think that what we are talking about might be "old" ways, but "old" ways and traditions die hard. I put a lot of hope in the movement now among those a little more "westernized" to bring to their society's consciousness, the treatment of dogs and eventually other animals.

 

Don't tell me about starvation. I know in the Ukraine, Baba Yar, and other remote areas, people resorted to cannibalism during Nazi occupation. In my mother's city, St. Petersburg, while her family fled before the Nazi occupation, later on, they heard from surviving family members. There was not a dog, a cat, a rat, left in the city. People ate the paste from wallpaper. So you have to do what you have to do to survive. I probably would have done the same to survive. That being said, WTH is wrong with a quick death for what is to become your dinner? There is something terribly wrong about the death of your dinner being entertainment.

 

I look at it this way, the same ignorant mentality that thinks tiger and bear gall bladders and penises hold the powers of virility, is the same mentality that is putting some of these species on the endangered list. This same mentality is responsible for the horrible ways they slaughter their animals---that agitated (through extreme pain) nerve endings make for a more tender meat---or maybe the agitated nerve endings secrete something into the dying animals systems that, guess what - increase virility?

 

I guess a quick and merciful death wouldn't provide all of the "fringe benefits" of meat.

 

I will not spend my money in any store that sells fur in any form - clothes, toys, from China. Even a made in China label that says Faux fur, has been found to be a "faux" label. Many of the made in China "faux fur" labels are made from racoon dog.

 

Oh, BTW, large breeds are coveted for their meat. The three most popular PB's for export to Asian countries are GR's, GSD's and -- border collies. Wonder what happens to the off spring of these dogs who don't make the cut?

 

This might have more information:

http://www.freewebs.com/dogsinasia/

(you need to click on the top right hand corner to get past the ad--or wait -- it takes a few seconds)

 

Food for thought.

[Lunar]

The whole idea just makes me feel very ill...

[Black Watch Debatable]

My dogs would be safer in Asia than they would be in the UK. Or Denver, for that matter.

[sea4th]

I know that PB's in the western world suffer more abuse than any other breed. The hysteria that surrounds them is an embarrassment and doesn't speak a lot for our legislators.

 

As far China halting the extermination of dogs---that's the group of people I was referring to. They are becoming a force to be reckoned with.

[Brandon M]

I doubt that the people of these countries where such acts are common really know what is going on either. It's the individual farmers and lack of regulations that need to be addressed. Is the importation of products made from dog fur even legal here in the US? I do a lot of trade shows (fairs, special events, etc.) here in California where there are a lot of chinese vendors who sell products that are made from dog fur. Like those little plastic animals that they claim are covered in rabbit fur, but a few have told me they truly are dog fur. I see them everywhere I go. If we could make that sorta thing harder to sell here then that would at least cut down on the profits collected by these "dog farms" or basically these end-of-the-line puppy mills in Asia.

[sea4th]

It's possible, I guess that these vendors don't know. I'd really have to wonder about that though.

 

I think the solution is awareness about these products. I know they can't be sold in stores in this area, but I've still seen them.

 

I think in part if the dog/cat fur trade is an economic one, then maybe alternatives should be offered to these people. Of course tho, if you're dealing with a mentality that puts that much emphasis on aphrodesiacs, whether it's from the meat of a tortured dog, tiger or bear gall bladders and penis', then that's a little harder to overcome.

 

In any case, for these heinous practices to stops, alternatives must be offered. In the interim, speak with your wallet.

[voices4animals]

"My dogs would be safer in Asia than they would be in the UK. Or Denver, for that matter."

 

 

How would they be safer in Asia, Luisa? Have you lived there?

 

Just curious..

~Kim

[Eileen Stein]

Luisa is talking about her pit bulls -- pit bulls cannot be sold or bred in the UK, and are banned in Denver.

[INU]

How about 'some parts' in Asia? Where I grew up, nobody ate dogs or abused in such ways. we took pretty good care of dogs - I wouldn't say as well as Americans do though...

[Eileen Stein]

Point well taken.

[SoloRiver]

My parents were originally from Seoul. They didn't eat dogs, they didn't know anyone who ate dogs, they never saw dogs for sale as food or saw any dogs being eaten. My mother doesn't consider dogs to be housepets -- she thinks they are guard animals and belong outside -- but that doesn't make her different from my brother's Italian mother in law or the family from Minnesota that lived down the street from me while I was growing up. My father loved dogs and wanted to get one, but my mother didn't want the expense or hassle so we never got one while I was a kid.

 

According to my mom, eating dogs is something only uneducated "country people" do (talk about cultural biases and stereotypes) and she would never even consider it. I don't know if her characterization of the practice is accurate, as she is a member of the "scholarly class" and quite a snob about it, but I do know, from her stories and visiting myself, that it is hardly the case that dogs are being skinned and eaten rampantly in the streets and restaurants of Seoul. This is not the impression one would get from the media hysteria surrounding this, however.

[donna frankland (uk)]

the whole country is going bull breed insane, and not in a good way its soo sad

 

sorry to butt in on the thread.

[Arnpriors]

Melanie, You are so, so wrong. Seoul Searching (graphic text and pictures)

 

[ 01-18-2007, 08:21 AM: Message edited by: Eileen Stein ]

[Eileen Stein]

As with the original "dog fur" thread, I think everything that can usefully be said on this subject has already been said, so I am locking this thread. Thanks to all for the views expressed.