Eat dogs, reduce disease

However, the cultural tradition of eating dogs in Southeast Asia has a long history and dog meat has represented an important source of protein. In addition, the cultural taboo against eating dogs is largely of European origin, where dogs have become surrogate family members. In other parts of the world, dogs are not considered family pets and are treated as other domestic animals.

If we look at different cultures, Hindus have taboos against eating cattle, Jews and Muslims against eating pigs, the British against eating dogs, cats and horses, while the French consume a considerable amount of horse meat. Insects are readily eaten by many cultures.

In Thailand there are millions of feral dogs that are not fed, vaccinated or cared for, and this population represents a major reservoir of diseases. These are often transferred to household pets and humans and children aged 5 and 10 years are the segment of the population most exposed to rabies, bitten by pet dogs that have got rabies from feral dogs.

In Thailand, the World Organisation of Animal Health, Department of Livestock Development and Ministry of Public Health provide vaccinations for dogs and other pets, and attempt to control feral dogs. At Khon Kaen University’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, there is a Rabies Club  that provides vaccine and seminars, and the Vet Hospital provides castration services to reduce feral populations.

Clearly, reducing the population of feral dogs would reduce the incidence of disease-transfer to humans and benefit the country in numerous ways. These include reducing the terrible human suffering due to rabies and approximately 60 other communicable diseases; saving the healthcare system millions of baht in patient care and reducing losses to the agricultural industry. It would provide income to families in the dog-selling business; reduce the cost of policing this business, which will move or has already moved underground; and provide much-needed protein to some sectors of the population. All that is needed is for this industry to be regulated by the authorities, as is the case with the transport and slaughter of other domestic animals, and the regulatory agencies are already in place.

One must ask whether Westerners should be imposing their cultural idiosyncrasies on Southeast Asians. For these reasons, Thai authorities might want to reconsider their options regarding this issue.

Frank F Mallory 

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada