Falling into the Cultural Attitude Trap

A recent opinion piece in Thailand’s The Nation newspaper entitled “Eat Dogs, Reduce Disease” defended the practice of eating dogs in that 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 as there are clear differences in cultural attitudes towards dogs, and the western view is very often expressed too forcefully and too arrogantly. For many people like me the issue is not so much the actual eating but the extremely cruel treatment that usual goes with the practice.

However, the author, having derided this imposition of western attitude, then falls into his own trap with the 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 the unowned, free-ranging lifestyle with a close relationship to the human residents since long before westerners imposed pets dogs as the ideal. Neither of these groups are feral in that they typically do get deliberate support from the human population and they do not avoid human contact. In the case of the latter group they are also already receiving all the care they require.

Apparently, if the author had his way then 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 would follow his own advice.

Learn more about the lives and issue of unowned dogs in my e-book ”A Stray View” available from Bangkok Books (readable as .pdf on any computer)