How Farmers In Switzerland Are Now Eating Dogs And Cats With Their Meals
While it is a practice normally associated with Far Eastern countries, a report by a newspaper in Switzerland indicates that eating dogs and cats is still a part of meals in rural areas of the Alpine nation.
The Tages Anzeiger said farmers in the Appenzell and St. Gallen areas in particular treat what we regard as domestic pets as food.
The area’s favorite type of meat is that of a dog similar to a Rottweiler.
“There’s nothing odd about it,” a farmer told the paper. “Meat is meat. Construction workers in particular like eating it.”
Farmers usually kill the dogs with a single shot or they bludgeon the animals to death.
The eating and killing of the dogs is not forbidden by law in Switzerland as it is in neighboring Germany, but the person can be prosecuted if the killing is deemed cruel.
Despite the legality, many animal welfare advocates are not in agreeance with the practice.
“The surveyed farmers spoke about their special preference only through the assurance of anonymity. All feared a hostile reaction from animal welfare activists and animal lovers,” the newspaper added.
“Animal welfare organizations and farmers assess the consumption differently, but it is particularly popular in the Rhine Valley.
“One farmer said he had stopped eating it purely because it is ‘frowned upon’ by society. He sees this as the hypocrisy of a society ‘that can get otherwise not enough meat.’”
Should some meat be frowned upon because of cultural differences, or is it a misunderstanding and a matter of ignorance?
James Gilbert | Elite.
