Recipe for dogmeat is too Western

Frank F Mallory defends the practice of eating dogs in this part of the world with the point that “the cultural taboo against eating dogs is largely of European origin”. I have a lot of sympathy with this view since there are clear differences in cultural attitudes towards dogs, and the Western view is very often expressed too forcefully and too arrogantly.

However, having derided this imposition of Western attitudes, he then falls into his own trap with this statement: “In Thailand there are millions of feral dogs that are not fed, vaccinated or cared for.” 

These “feral” dogs fall into two categories: abandoned pets that need our help and village dogs that have been living without an owner yet with a close relationship to humans since long before Westerners imposed pets dogs as the ideal. Neither of these groups is actually feral, in that they typically are supported by humans and do not avoid human contact. The latter group – the “village dogs” – is totally absent from the Western model of the human-dog relationship, so Westerners always lump them together with abandoned pets as “strays”.

Apparently, if the author got his way, the indigenous cultural tradition of Thailand’s village dogs would disappear.

I totally agree with his penultimate sentence: “One must ask whether Westerners should be imposing their cultural idiosyncrasies on Southeast Asians.” I just wish he had followed his own advice.

Adrian Hillman

Bangkok