Within the prevailing ethnic group, the Han, the consumption of dog meat is widespread and is more common, especially in some southern and north-eastern regions of China. However, there are many Han Chinese who do not eat dog meat, both for ethical reasons and simply because they prefer other foods.

In any case, the consumption of canine meat is slowly but gradually decreasing, because we are increasingly starting to consider dogs as a pet, and also because the cost of this meat is higher than that of chicken and other pets from farms.

Already until the second half of the twentieth century, the dog was used as a hunting animal, as a guard or as food. After 1949 the Communist Party declared pet dogs as “proof of wealth linked to bourgeois feelings” and classified them as criminal waste in a period of food shortage.

The relationship that the Chinese has today with the dog is not well defined, some consider it as food and some others as a pet. However, many Chinese are not at all willing to cancel this type of food from their diet, because it has been part of their culinary tradition for centuries.

You can find the full version of this report on:
OASIS – Environmental culture magazine – n. 217