Krazy Kiwi wrote:
>
> Mon, 23 Oct 2000, J.M. Vitoux <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >Don't really agree on the delicacy part since I already ate dog
> >when living in Korea and didn't particularly enjoy it.
>
> Jean-Marc ... how could you eat Lassie!!

How could I eat so many things like : raw/live sea cucumber,
fermented ray (the worst thing I ever tried), live octopus (they
cut it alive right before serving and you get a plate full of
wiggling tentacles; the real fun is when you eat the tentacle and
it sucks itself to your tongue/cheek/gum :-)). At least they
(Koreans) have the decency to serve that kind of stuff with
generous glasses of stiff alcohol :-/

When coming to think of it, how can we eat lobster and crabs
(normally cut/boiled alive), frog legs (torn from a living frog),
foie gras (force fed geese liver), fresh oysters (alive) etc.
I know I can.


> I know I am making light of this in this post but it is quite a serious
> topic. I think nothing of eating parts of a cow whereas in other countries
> they are sacred. Coming from a farming background if one of the kids found
> out we had killed one of our own stock for dinner they wouldnt eat their
> meals. It was like we served up Bambi to them. All our animals were hand
> reared, had names & were actually pets in one way or another.
>
> >As a matter of fact, my understanding is that they beat (or used to
> >do so) the dogs (breaking a couple of bones) a while before
> >slaughtering them. The idea is that the adrenalin pumped into the
> >system gives the meat a better taste...
>
> God! I hope that beating before death practice has been banned.

Some Koreans say it has some that it hasn't. I just don't know.

>
> >I notice that no one answered on whether fishes feel pain or not.
>
> I havent answered it ... but Ive posted your query on a question & answer
> list to see what the knowledgeable folk come back with. As soon as I get a
> reply I will send it on to the list.

That will be pretty interesting to read. I just trust that you
put my question in proper context and that currently my name
isn't the object of numerous insults on another list :-)

>
> >I think that Strike was making a good point. We are more likely
> >to react to something we know/like or can empathize with.
>
> Not having travelled in the asian area as much as I would like to I wasnt
> aware of the delicacy - dog legs. I am sure I couldnt stomach eating Lassie
> (frog legs dont appeal either), yet I think nothing of eating turkey &
> chicken legs.

Although the impression might have arisen from previous posts,
they don't eat dog legs but the body.

>
> >easier to mobilize people on Dolphin protection than on sharks.
> >As an illustration I'll take the Singapore Night Safari. All
> >animals on display there have corporate sponsors except the
> >hyenas :-)
>
> Hmmm maybe the hyena could be sponsored by a certain software company ;-)
>
> >We are all humans with our emotions but each of us may have a
> >different threshold at which point we think something is
> >acceptable or not.
>
> Certainly true about the thresholds & what we think is acceptable or not.
> Im not in to fox hunting, yet in other countries its an annual sport. I
> hate steeple horse racing due to the number of injuries, many fatal, to the
> horses. Im not in to bull-fighting but in some countries its their national
> sport. Our world is so diverse we have more grey areas than black & white
> ones.
> Viv

Jean-Marc