Why We Should All Be Eating Dog Meat

Are you vegan?

I’m not. I eat animals. Yet, I recently found myself in a hypocritical debate trying to convince others that they were horrible people for even thinking about eating Fido.

A quick backstory on how I got myself into this situation:

I went to North Korea on a tour last year. (More on that here.). And before going, I knew that I may be offered dog meat to eat. However, I also knew that I would be able to refuse this dish and that there would be other options. Plus, I never actually thought that we would really be offered dog meat. I mean, it’s one of those things that happens over “there”, but never “here”. “Here”, of course, referring to anywhere that I currently am.

Suffice to say, it was Day 1 in North Korea and we were offered a choice between chicken and dog meat soup. Farmed chickens and dogs, we were assured, so no one would imagine a poor Fido being stripped away from his loving home.

To my surprise, the majority of our group opted for the dog meat. When in Rome, they snickered. And I decided to hold my tongue on how I really felt because I’m all for freedom of choice and freedom of expression and just freedom in general. But really, I think you’re an asshole for choosing the dog soup.

So, the trip went on and I resorted to business as usual. Business as usual being me not discussing my emotionally-charged views on the wrongful act of dog-eating.

And then came the last night of the trip when I was an equal mix of excited-slash-anxious-slash-shwasted and someone brought it up. “What do you think about eating dog meat, Adriana?” Well, I let them know exactly what I thought. And not in my usual chic-&-classy kinda way.

So the night ended a little rougher than it started. And then the trip ended. And then I came back home to San Francisco to my wonderfully alive dog and all was beautifully dog soup-less again.

Except that my type-A personality wouldn’t let me shake the need to prove to everyone that eating dogs was just.. wrong.

I started thinking, what makes it okay for me to eat other animals? I mean, my mother has a pet pig yet pork belly is a favorite of mine. I had a pet guinea pig as a child, yet I thoroughly…