Posted on: Monday, February 14, 2005

EDITORIAL
Pets or food? It's a fair topic for debate

A legislative bill to criminalize the trafficking of dogs and cats for human consumption raises salient questions about overseas cultural practices.

Though many might dismiss the measure as xenophobic, the issue deserves serious debate because it forces us to define our societal values and live by those standards.

Evidence suggests that stealing or breeding dogs and cats for eating is not just an urban myth in Hawai'i. If it is a growing trade, as animal rights advocates and some law enforcement officials suggest, we have to confront this issue.

But first it's important to acknowledge that dogs and cats elsewhere don't hold the social and emotional status that they do in the United States.

In some cultures, dogs live outdoors and are used solely for guarding property. In others, they are a source of nutrition and even a delicacy. Abhorrent as that might seem, we have to respect that.

It is therefore perfectly understandable that some immigrants would bring with them cultural practices that might be retained for generations.

Second, the issue of which animals are fit for consumption is entirely arbitrary. If we eat pigs, sheep, fowl and rabbits, then why not dogs and cats?

The fact is, most Americans assign a higher status to dogs and cats than to livestock. In tens of millions of households, dogs or cats are virtually members of the family.

So how do we approach these cultural differences?

Well, in the case of cockfighting, a perfectly acceptable practice in the Philippines, Mexico and other countries, the United States has rightly condemned this gambling sport as cruel.

Over centuries, we have treated cats and dogs as friends and family. Expanding them to food would simply be abhorrent to most Americans — not to mention potential health risks. And to live here, that has to be respected, just as Americans traveling abroad have to respect the host cultures.