Worried about South East Asia - Food vs Pets

[Tim.C]

Right folks, I'm having a bit of a crisis. The girlfriend and I are planning to take a career-break next year and travel. Thailand is firmly on the wish-list and Cambodia/Vietnam have entered our consciousness also.

My fear is this - we are both BIG cat and dog lovers - I'm concerned about what we might see. Now I want to put aside, if possible, the arguments vis-a-vis the difference between a dog and a pig for example; I understand the logic, I get the need for food and the differences in cutural norms. However, I have to admit that this isn't a problem of logic. It's one of emotion. So, what do we do? How widespread is the eating of what we would call pets and, in addition, how widespread (and visible) is what we would term 'animal cruelty?'

Cheers,

TC

[phumy]

Dog is eaten in the south of Vietnam, its not widely advertised, as you have to know what youre looking for. They also eat rat, sparrows and snake all in the south, but again you probably would not see the restaurants who are cooking it as they would all be "back street" type cook houses. I live in the Mekong Delta region and there are plenty of dog/snake/rat restaurants, but i know where they are and wouldnt choose to eat there. The local market where i live has plenty of dog,rat and snake meat strung up and for sale.....I have plenty of photos to prove it but wont post them here for fear of scaring the children.


But what you have to understand these people have been eating this meat for thousands of years and its part of their culture, so if you came here and started to make a scene because you didnt like what they were doing wouldnt phase them one bit, they would probably laugh at you for being ignorant of their normal life.

You will probably find that dog is also eaten in Cambodia, seeing that it is a relatively poor country.

[nick s]

You won't have any problems with that in Thailand. I've spent about 4 months there in total and travelled all over and have never encountered it.
What you will see though, is packs of wild stray dogs running around everywhere! Especially on the islands like Koh Tao etc.

Edited by nick s on Monday 7th December 12:45

[phumy]

The only dogs i have ever encountered in Thailand were scabby, mangey mutts too lazy to do anything always asleep on the road outside the temples, as the monks are the only people who will feed the wild ones, they dont bite cos theyre too hot and tired.