Read Article First: Dog: The Other White Meat
First, let me apologize for falling into the usual bad habits of a blogger of not posting! Yes, it's been 4 and a half months since I last posted. My excuse is...I'm looking for a job as most recent college graduates are. Besides a week long beach trip (Thanks Dad and Gayle!) and a six-day trip to Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival (WOOHOO!), I've been hitting the job grind as some might say. One more excuse: I didn't want to write something if I had nothing to say. That, I'm sure, can be really torturous to read!
Back on point: I found this article and man, did it hit home for me. I've been trying to convey this idea to many people but never could find the words without saying, "We should eat dogs!" which is soooo not what this article is about - or what I believe. See? I'm retarded when it comes to finding the right words to convey a controversial subject.
As many of you know, I'm a huge animal lover. I see cows running, and I will laugh about it for days. I see peacocks in the middle of a field in TN and almost run off the road because it's so odd and amazing to see a peacock in close range. Oh, and I cry when I kill things accidentally with my car. Two weekends ago I killed a bird while driving down the road. Just this happy little bird flying along, enjoying his day, and BAM! No more happy bird. I know, I know...it's the circle of life (cue Lion King music), but I couldn't help but worry about the bird's fellow companions or family that may be waiting for it to return home.
I obviously have a very strong sentiment (some may say way too much sentiment) for animals, so it would be obvious that I would not want people to eat dogs. Dogs are one of my favorite animals. They are there for you when you're sick, upset, angry, depressed. They literally are man's best friend. Not to mention how each individual dog always has it's own personality and can make you laugh for hours on end with the crazy things they do. So why would anyone want to eat such an amazing creature?
Well, look at a pig or a chicken or a cow the way you look at your dog. All are intelligent creatures. All have mothers and fathers and siblings. All have true feelings and thoughts. All feel shame, pain, fear, loneliness, love. Why, then, do we turn a blind eye to the way they are treated? Oh that's right - because we eat them. That obviously means that they're just a piece of meat and nothing else.
If people could just see or hear what goes on in factory farms, I promise you many would never want to touch that food again. It really is a disgusting industry, and yet the U.S. government says it's a perfectly legal practice. There have even been states that are trying to pass a bill stating that undercover agents of animal rights groups who infiltrate factory farms disguised as workers should be prosecuted for their findings. This is yet another way the government and the food industry are trying to blind the public's eye to what really is going on behind closed doors. The only reason they choose to do things that way is because the government and the food industry does not provide the public with the information of what really is going on when a steak makes it from point A (being the animal) to point B (being your dinner plate).
It's ludicrous to judge certain countries for eating dogs when we treat the animals we eat here in the United States the way we do. We're really no different from them at all.
