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Taste for Dog Meat on the Rise in Indonesia

Taste for Dog Meat on the Rise in Indonesia

Taste for Dog Meat on the Rise in Indonesia

Reliable data on dog meat consumption in Indonesia is difficult to ascertain, but many animal advocates, butchers, restaurant owners, and researchers all agree that consumption has risen. When a country experiences an economic growth, this usually means a decrease in its dog meat consumption like within Korea and China. However, Indonesia is seeing the opposite. Indonesians who may not be financially capable of eating cows can now afford dog or cat meat.

Besides affordability, many people claim dubious health benefits as their reasoning, such as cures for asthma as well as keeping the “body warm and the blood flowing.”

Brad Anthony, a Canadian animal protection researcher and analyst states, “From a strictly practical, agricultural point of view, growing dogs and cats for meat requires far less space and feed resources than growing cows, and is therefore cheaper.” This is another reason that may attribute to its increased production and consumption.

The Indonesian government does not classify dogs as livestock so the slaughter, distribution, sale, and consumption are not regulated. Data on the number of dogs killed and consumed are not collected. This industry also operates underground, making it difficult to collect data.

Many Muslims regard dogs as unclean; however, Islamic traditions does not forbid it like it does with pigs. According to animal rights advocates, the practice of eating dogs is thriving in Muslim areas. Bali, where the majority are Hindu and consumption is traditionally discouraged, has also seen an increase. “The Bali Animal Welfare Association estimates that as many as 70,000 dogs are slaughtered and consumed on the popular resort island every year.”

“One by one, they are taken down a flight of steps to an open room with a concrete pig sty in the back. The dogs are beaten over the head with a wooden club, then stabbed through the throat as they lie unconscious. The blood is drained into buckets and sold to restaurants along with the meat, for cooking purposes.”

As cruel as this may sound, dogs are slaughtered more cruelly in Bali. “Many are strangled and then butchered immediately. Others are put in sacks and beaten to death,” says Ms. Giradi, Bali animal welfare advocate.

Only livestock are protected under Indonesian’s law against cruelty to animals. Dogs, cats, or wild animals are not protected. Because “no one cares,” animal welfare activists have all but given on the grounds of cruelty, and instead they will focus on the “potential for the unregulated trade to spread rabies.”

Rabies is a problem in Bali and elsewhere and will never get fixed with the “underground meat market going on” according to Mr. Anthony, Canadian researcher.

Read more here.

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