Aren't we forcing American values on Taiwan? How long before we are reviled for "cultural imperialism"? I say to let sleeping dogs lie.

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AP International

Taiwan Passes Ban on Dog Meat

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Lawmakers have banned what some Taiwanese consider to be a winter treat: dog meat.

Under the new law passed Tuesday, people will be fined up to $300 for butchering or selling dog meat, called ''fragrant meat'' in Taiwanese slang.

Food stalls serving dog stew and stir-fries were once popular in Taiwan, where some people believe the meat strengthens the body against the winter cold.

But in recent years, dog eateries have become less common because the Taiwanese have become more affluent and are influenced by Western values. Most urban Taiwanese consider those who eat dog to be backward and cruel.

The new law also prohibits the slaughter of cats and the mistreatment of pets and stray animals.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), January 03, 2001

Answers

Here's an idea, mate

Rooburgers

-- (PaulHogan@his_billa.bong), January 03, 2001.

Same oidea, mate---

Kangaroo meat jumping off shelves

The Australian kangaroo meat industry wants more of its countrymen to start eating the marsupials in a bid to match foreign appetite for the delicacy.

Spokesman for the Kangaroo Industry Association, John Kelly, said: "In the European markets, the meat is going into traditional game meat markets, places where there is an established cuisine based on game."

However, in Australia the meat, which is said to taste like beef, selling kangaroo for human consumption has only been legal in the country's three most populated states since 1993.

© Associated Newspapers Ltd., 03 January 2001 Terms and Conditions This Is London

-- (PaulHogan@his.billabong), January 03, 2001.

If Americans were willing to eat unwanted dogs and cats, the shelters wouldn't be full. Morons who dump their untrained, unvaccinated, and unwanted pets in the country where some loving famerette will hopefully take them in -- along with their incessant barking, digging, chewing, slaughtering of livestock, and aggression toward the farmerette's children -- are "too kind" to put the animals to sleep in a humane way. Now veterinarians are refusing to put healthy animals to sleep, and why I cannot fathom.

-- helen's had to put down sick strays once too often (b@r.f), January 04, 2001.

Helen-

Our vet refuses to put healthy animals to sleep. Instead, her office takes ownership of the animals and finds them homes. This is how we got our second dog. Her former owner bought her from a puppy mill and insisted on feeding her table scraps, which unfortunately contained animal bones. At four months, she developed an obstruction in her bowels which required surgery. Her former owner, being an idiot moron, continued to feed her table scraps, including bones, and at six months she developed another obstruction. Her former owner brought her back to our vet and said that it was too hard to care for the dog and asked our vet to put her to sleep. Our vet refused, took ownership of the dog, and performed the surgery again. When we took our dog in a week or two later, the vet techs introduced us to the puppy and asked if we wanted another dog (they knew we had adopted our male Chow from the shelter and thought we might be open).

Our vet says that she refuses to put healthy animals to sleep because she believes she can find homes for them, either through her office or our local breed rescue groups. Her partners feel the same way. When you go into her office, there's usually at least one or two pictures of available animals and a dog or two lying behind the counter waiting to find a new home. In the four years that they've had this policy, they've never had to send a dog to the shelters.

-- Tarzan the Ape Man (tarzan@swingingthroughthejunglewithouta.net), January 04, 2001.

BTW- the puppy we adopted is doing quite well, though she suffers from unbelievable bouts of gas. I've never heard a dog belch so loudly in all my life, it sounds for all the world like someone saying "blech" while vomiting. Also, she has incredible flatulence, so awful that our male dog will whine and leave the room. The doc says that it's a byproduct of having two intestinal surgeries done at such a young age.

-- Tarzan the Ape Man (tarzan@swingingthroughthejunglewithouta.net), January 04, 2001.

Tarzan, our vets in this area refuse to euthanize but do not often offer to take the animals themselves. The city shelter won't take animals from outside the city limits. City idiots dump their animals in the country. Us fine, upstanding country people either shoot the animals or dump them back in town. This is stupid. Make meat animals out of them at least.

-- helen (b@r.f), January 04, 2001.

If you don't mind my asking, what city do you live near? You might consider bringing this situation to the attention of the ASPCA, your state Health and Human Services ofice (since stray animals are a human health hazard) and your county animal shelters. In my city, Atlanta, we have one city shelter but each county animal shelters and there are some private groups as well.

-- Tarzan the Ape Man (tarzan@swingingthroughthejunglewithouta.net), January 04, 2001.

Jeez helen

tell the shelter you found the animal within city limits. wouldnt you rather tell a little white lie, than shoot a poor stray homeless hungry animal?

-- cin (cin@cin.cin), January 04, 2001.

Tarzan, the area has little or no funding for animal shelters. A few people try to do it on their own and are overwhelmed with hundreds of dumped dogs and cats.

Cin, I tried that. They check your ID. The only other way is to get a friend in town to do it for you. When the $%#! animal is killing your livestock, you just don't have time to fool with it.

-- helen (b@r.f), January 04, 2001.

Helen,

No offense, but you're missing the point. In the New Morality it doesn't matter that someone else is responsible for all the unwanted animals that turn up on your farm (by not taking care of their pets), YOU are the evil one for not adopting them all, or finding suitable homes for them.

You see the only person now who is the "bad guy" is the one who tries to do *something* about the situation, or complains when they are (correctly) held responsible for someone else's problems.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), January 05, 2001.

Frank-

Blow it out your ass. I haven't blamed Helen for anything, I'm just trying to help her solve a problem. If Helen's property is being overrun by wild dogs, then chances are her neighbors are having a similar problem. This is a major issue, not just from an animal perspective but from a human health and economic perspective as well. Since this problem won't go away on its own, someone somewhere is going to have to do something about it or the problem will continue. Maybe in Frank's World this constitutes blame.

Helen-

This is a story which would have a lot of appeal to a reporter. It's got all the right angles to be a heart tugger- neglected animals, callous government workers, neglectful owners, human health and property imperiled. I say that you should start sending some e-mails about the situation to larger regional newspapers. This is the sort of thing writers eat up with a spoon, and once the news gets hold of it, you might see some action.

-- Tarzan the Ape Man (tarzan@swingingthroughthejunglewithouta.net), January 05, 2001.

Tarzan, I believe Frank was joking. The national media covers unwanted pet stories all the time. Bob Barker reminds his viewers after EVERY show to have their pets spayed or neutered. People know better -- they just do it anyway.

-- helen saw the first of this year's Christmas dalmations on the road and headed thisaway (b@r.f), January 05, 2001.

OMG, arent 'we' all in 'rare' form this am?

sumer, who is snickering, @ work. hee hee

-- sumer (shh@aol.con), January 05, 2001.

Helen-

If you're reluctant to attract media attention, you could also try getting your neighbors together to put pressure on your county and state governments. Odds are, your neighbors are also tired of the situation. I'll wager that some young state politican would relish a chance to make his or her mark with a fairly clear-cut political issue.

Of course, if you're not interested in doing anything at all about the situation, just tell me. I'll post an e-mail address and you can privately send me the name of the state and county you live in and I'll take a crack at resolving the situation. Your name won't have to enter into it.

-- Tarzan the Ape Man (tarzan@swingingthroughthejunglewithouta.net), January 05, 2001.

Tarzan,

Get back into bed, take good account of what side you got out of the FIRST time this morning, and get out on the OTHER side.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), January 05, 2001.

Tarzan, thanks for your offer to help. This area can't afford proper foster care for children. A bullet to the brain to end the life of an unwanted pet isn't as cruel as it sounds. Most of the people I know would be reluctant to talk about they handle strays.

-- helen (b@r.f), January 05, 2001.

Helen,

Do you have a rendering plant near you? They are always on the lookout for more raw materials, and you'd be contributing to the circle of life, a good thing. If there were enough animals, who knows they might even make a weekly pick-up (you might even be able to put old quarts of motor oil in their bellies if you're sneaky, thus disposing of two hazards at once).

Frank

P.S. O.K., I'll admit it, this time I just wanted to watch Tarzan pop a blood vessel.

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), January 05, 2001.

pretty sick frank

didnt realize you had it in you =(

-- cin (cin@cin.cin), January 05, 2001.

You're really a heartless prick Frank and not funny at all. This disgusting attempt at humor speaks volumes about the sort of person you are, or should that be the sort of person you aren't? Either way, it's obvious why you find it so easy to condemn people with AIDS.

-- Alison in Wonder Bra (alison@wonder.bra), January 05, 2001.

Ah...hmm...Frank's joking isn't nearly as disgusting as the reality has been.

To the people who dumped the Brittany Spaniel: She lived less than 35 minutes after you drove away. She ran the stock and wouldn't calm down. If she wasn't worth your money to take care of her, she wasn't worth the price of a pregnant cow.

To the people who dumped the German Shepherd: She lived here nearly two years. No amount of food or vet care would put meat on her bones or hair on her body. She stumped the vet with her (expensive) problems. Her hip dysplasia was so bad that most of the time she didn't walk. Her last day here was surprisingly busy -- she spent a few hours killing all of the livestock she could reach. She wasted around 100 pounds of meat, not including the bone weight. We agree with you that she was a total waste of time.

To the people who dumped the Chow puppy: he was hit by a car and NOT killed outright. His injuries were beyond our ability to pay for at the vet's office. I comforted him as well as I could for his remaining time. You really should have been here for him.

To the people who dumped the Chow mix male: he was a really neat dog. Thanks! Unfortunately he dropped dead foaming at the mouth on New Year's Day. We had to inform the 11 adults and 18 children who visited us over the holidays that they might have gotten more than good cheer at our house. He had licked some of the kids on the mouth. I spent New Year's Day hauling a dead dog around trying to find a vet willing to send his head in for rabies testing on a holiday. I made a point of watching exactly where he put the butcher knife (right behind the point at the back of the skull) so I wouldn't have to pay anyone $50 for it in the future. Next time I'll do it myself. I'll sure never forget your contribution to my life skills.

To the people who dumped the Pointer: she was in heat. She not only brought herself, she brought every male dog in our area with her. Our elderly male dog got his ass chewed off. You cheap bastards.

To the people who dumped the Golden Retriever: he was a bird dog. Did you really think I would chance him around my chickens? I had to chase him half a mile before he believed me when I said he had to keep moving. YOU tell my neighbors why they should put up with him. Please don't insist that I should have given him a chance to prove he was a livestock-killing machine...I was on my way to work. No time to handle YOUR problem.

To the people who dumped the puppy whose breed could not be determined: apparently I need to see the hair of the dog in order to tell what breed it belongs to. That pup didn't have two hairs on it's entire body. We gave it our hamburger that we had planned to eat for dinner. She didn't die hungry, just cold. Thought you should know.

-- helen's soapbox caves in... (b@r.f), January 05, 2001.

If people could only look out at the world through the eyes of an animal

What unimaginably terrifying things do you think they'd see

-- cin (cin@cin.cin), January 05, 2001.

Cin--

I like animals as much as the next guy but let's not endow them with Holiness. You know what carniverous animals do for a living? -- they kill other animals, often in very unpleasant ways. If the lion ever laid down with the lamb, he'd eat him.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), January 05, 2001.

Alison:

When did you change your name?

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), January 06, 2001.

FS--

Maybe she is changing to a gender-neutral name to enhance her climb up the corporate ladder at Victoria's Secret.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), January 06, 2001.

Alison,

You're really a heartless prick Frank and not funny at all. This disgusting attempt at humor speaks volumes about the sort of person you are, or should that be the sort of person you aren't? Either way, it's obvious why you find it so easy to condemn people with AIDS.

Alison, people in Helen's area are dumping their problems on someone else (often in one way or another involuntarily giving the recipients significant costs to bear). From my reading, no one who's against puppies being dumped in the country on this forum has said ANYTHING about trying to get their original owners to take care of their own problems.

Is discussing giving a dead dog to a rendering plant (which will do more for society than just rot in a field) REALLY that much more sick than the actions of the person who ACTUALLY left the dog to die in the first place? Why don't you start condemning people who *really* deserve condemnation, instead of those that 'sort of' do, if you are going to start somewhere.

Also, you're pretty far off the mark on HIV, but the fun part's in the condemning, right Alice?

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), January 06, 2001.

Exactly Frank. I disliked the provocative tone you adopted (on purpose?) but your point is correct, people are not taking responsibility (the idiots who dumped their animals there) and to me that = unconscionable cruelty. Some people like to tell themselves oh, this is an animal, it will do just fine "in nature", or "some kindly person" will take them in. Hah.

When we humans are at the effect of evil in the world, we may not like it but we are at least in a position to comprehend it and do something about it. Not so for domesticated animals, who did not create this world and can't comprehend the evil in it; yet WE have made them a part of our world. Lars, that is the difference - that these animals, cats and dogs, are domesticated. I consider that we have made a pact with them over the long term.

Men have forgotten this truth ... But you must remember. You are responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

....Antoine de Saint Exupery from "The Little Prince"

-- Debbie (dbspence@usa.net), January 06, 2001.