Dog Days in China

By Roger Cohen

International Herald Tribune

NEW YORK - I see the Beckhams, David and Victoria (Posh), have acquired
a couple of "micro pigs" as pets and that said pigs (65 pounds when
fully grown) are now a fashionable item in Britain, at least among those
who can afford a $1,000-plus price tag.

Perhaps Beckham is heeding Churchill, who had a penchant for pigs. The
great man's verdict: "Dogs look up to you, cats look down on you. Give
me a pig. He just looks you in the eye and treats you as an equal."

Churchill's view has some scientific basis. Pigs are smart and sociable.
They've had a pretty bad rap, however. Two of the world's great
monotheistic religions - Judaism and Islam - prohibit their consumption.
Generally, the notion of pigs as pets seems bizarre or repellent.

Why? There's nothing rational about the view that taking a pig for a
walk on a leash is weird, while eating a pork chop, if you so choose, is
reasonable. But then, after a visit to China, it seems to me that reason
has little or nothing to do with the way we view animals and food.

The Chinese, for example, eat dog (as well as cats, but I'm going to
focus on dogs here). They ascribe to dog meat a formidable "warming"
quality - the Chinese divide nutrition into "hot" and "cold" elements
and seek balance between them - which makes it prized in many regions
during winter.

Now, we are appalled in the West at the notion of eating dog while
considering it natural to have a dog as a pet - I own a Beagle myself
("Ned") and I'm very fond of him. This is the inverse of the
preponderant Western view of pigs: fine to eat (religious objections
aside) but not to pet.

But do pigs have any more or less of a soul than dogs? Are they any more
or less sentient? Do they suffer any more or less in death? Are they any
more or less part of the mysterious unity of life? I think not.

There is a rational, and for some people a spiritual, case for being a
vegetarian: Killing animals is wrong. However I cannot see a rational
argument for saying eating dogs or cats is barbaric while eating pork or
beef is fine. If you eat meat you cannot logically find it morally or
ethically repugnant to eat a particular meat (I'm setting cannibalism
aside here.)

That's the theory at least. Yet I must confess I've been having a hard
time. My bout of anguish began a few weeks back on a wintry night in
central China, in the restless megalopolis of Chongqing. I was cold, wet
and seeking refuge.

"What's that?" I asked my resourceful interpreter, Xiyun Yang, pointing
to a steamy, crowded establishment with a big red neon sign (the Chinese
approach is, when in doubt, make it gaudy).

"You don't want to know."

"I think I do."

"It's a dog restaurant." It was then that I noticed the image of a puppy
with floppy ears beside the Chinese characters.

I gave Xiyun a long, hard look. "Dog's really good," she said. "I love
it."

Images of Ned (and his floppy ears) popped into my head, as well as
thoughts of what I'd tell my daughter, but I'd come to admire Xiyun's
gastronomic antennae (particularly for Sichuan noodles) and I tend to
adhere to the I'll-try-anything-once school. In we went.

The menu was predictably dog-dominated: dog paws, dog tail, dog brain,
dog intestine, even dog penis. We went for a dog broth, simmered for
four hours, with Sichuan pepper and ginger. It was warming, with a
pepper-tingle. The meat was tender, unctuous, blander than pork, but
stronger than chicken. Later, the owner, Chen Zemin, explained how the
best dogs for eating had yellow coats, weighed 30 pounds, and did
miracles for arthritis.

I'll take Chen's word for it. Dog was not easy for me. The memory has
proved hard to digest.

As it happened, our meal came shortly before the eruption of a furious
online debate in China over a proposed "anti-animal maltreatment" law
that would outlaw the eating and selling of dog and cat meat, making it
punishable by fines of more than $700 and 15 days of detention.

The legislation, now under review, immediately came under heavy fire.
One restaurant owner in the Chaozhou region declared: "This is
ridiculous! You make dog and cat meat illegal, but aren't chickens,
duck, goose, pig, cow, lamb also animals?" Another noted a local saying:
"When the dog meat is being simmered, even the gods become dizzy with
hunger."

I'm with these indignant protesters. I'm not happy that I ate dog. But
I'm happy China eats dog. It so proclaims both a particularity to be
prized in a homogenizing world and its rationality. Anyone who doesn't
want China to eat dog must logically embrace pigs as pets.

But, as I've learned, logic has its limits. It's the heart not the head
that governs this world under the sway of the dizzy gods.