No where in the link did it said the picture originates in Kunming. Granted it's shown in the Kunming pet website but I've seen the same picture posted on other websites as well some years ago.

Second, a slaughterhouse is a slaughterhouse regardless of what type of animal is being slaughtered and your feelings towards the said animal. While I don't eat dog meat and find the idea horrifying, I am not a vegetarian either and most likely are you.

The next time you chow down on some meat think about how it was slaughtered.

Just trying to keep things in perspective, s'all.

I don't eat dog meat either and I am opposed to the idea due to the fact that my family always have had cats and dogs. Chinese people see things differently though and I guess it is necesary to accept that. The main issue here is how animals in general are being treated in this country imo. Ducklings are being spraypainted in all sorts of bright colours so that kids will pester their parents to buy them one. Animals for sale are tied up and stuffed into small cages untill it is filled to the brim. Animal transports are an utter disgrace and in certain parts of China it is still acceptable to "amputate" limbs of animals for food so that the rest of the meat can stay alive and fresh.

Some people call the Chinese barbarians for the way they treat animals. I wouldn't go that far but I hope that awareness of how to treat our fellow beings would increase.

And if Chinese people give you the usual "We need to improve our own living standards before we can think of animals" don't buy it. It only takes so little to consider animals and their wellbeing and if you buy a duckling or a small rabbit for your spoiled little brat then at least teach them the do's and dont's.

I'm afraid I'm in the same boat as Danmairen. I eat nearly every variety of livestock, but dogs is on my no-list. I realize this makes me something of a hypocrite. I don't care.

It's simply a matter of educating people to properly take care of animals. One fantastic thing I've noticed is that people in general seem to be enjoying dogs and cats as pets much more than before...providing it's pure-bred and is a popular breed. Some poor mutt starving on the street? Who cares, it's ugly. Unfortunate, but true.

It all starts with the kids...and I did see those day-glo ducklings all around Wen Lin St. last week. Some guy in front of the elementary school was selling them to ignorant kids and even more ignorant parents. What the hell will you do with a duckling in the city? Poor duck.

These photos are not much worse than what you'd see at a slaughterhouse in the West; it's just that they're putting the dogs through this hellish existence and painful death. But pigs, cows, etc feel pain just as much as dogs. The meat industry hides slaughterhouses in remote fortresses precisely because it doesn't want the public to see what happens.

What can we do as individuals? For the good of these animals, and for our physical and mental health (it doesn't do a person any good to keep telling himeself "I don't care if I'm a hypocrite."), we can try to phase meat out of our diets. The killing won't stop until there is no market for it.

I tried dog meat at a dai wedding, and it was awesome :) And if you wanna see something really gross, try kosher or muslim slaughterhouses, although I have nothing against those either.

It's true, I don't care. I realize that the animals I eat are slaughtered...they experience pain, etc. etc. Regardless, I don't have the same emotional connection to animals like chickens and so on that I do for dogs. I think this is probably true of the majority of people, but I'll speak for myself on this one.

I saw a chicken slaughtered, and it while I was upset by it, it didn't gross me out entirely. A dog, however, could have me weeping. Call that millenia of dog-human relationships coming into play, I guess.

I can imagine in a forum somewhere in the US where two Indians (as in from India, and not Native Americans) discuss in horror the practice of slaughtering cows in the US and the American's nonchalant attitude about it.

I think Tony is attempting to make a point about cultural reletivism. Not sure. Regardless, any westerner who would not accept genital mutilation on a traditional-cultural justification basis has reason not to accept the slaughter of dogs. And any person who is above being proud of his hypocrisy should not contribute to the suffering inherent in the meat industry.

Actually I don't know what my point was, I was just really bored. But I guess my point was that we as American, (and yes usually it is Americans although it could be Europeans as well) has a knee-jerk tendency to point fingers at others just because they have different cultural values than ours all the while ignoring or own hypocrisy.

While we may disapprove and be aghast at different cultural practices, who are we to impose or values which are shaky in the first place. What makes eating a cow or pig alright and not a dog? Why is force circumcision on a male baby an accepted practice while forced clitoral circumcision on a female baby not?

Tony, I see your point, and it is a good point. If we are going to oppose dog slaughter then we must be prepared to oppose the slaughter of other mammals as well. And consistency is necessary here.

And cultural reletivism is a perspective worthy of consideration. Who is anyone to impose his moral values? Well, I do think that there are some practices that are so indivudually or societally hurtful that no traditionalist or culturalist argument can morally justify them. Gental mutilation perhaps is one. I think the torture and killing of animals for meat is another. In my opinion, generally, it is wrong everywhere, in any culture.

Should we tolerate the oppression and abuse of women in traditionalist societies their particular traditions are sacred? Or the suppression of independent thought for the sake of traditional cultural authoritarian practices in, say, North Korea?

A carelessly reletivistic morality does not lead anywhere, at least nowhere worthwhile. A careful one doesn't do much better. At what point does a person draw a line and say something is unacceptable, regardless of culture or tradition? Murder? Rape? Slavery? What if the suffering beings are not human?