We don't eat dogs for the very same reasons. There are ten-thousand-year-old alliances we have with a few animals that deserve to be honored. I've met some very sweet camels who have been treated like horses. The few camels I've gotten close to in Saudi were spitting, biting mother fuckers, and I know it does not come naturally to them. Their idea of a "hotel" is putting up an unsheltered pen in the middle of the desert. Not impressed at all.
The members of the Lewis-Clark expedition traded wild game to native tribes for dogs. Not as pack animals or for companionship or protection, but because they preferred dog meat over venison. Note that this was not a survival strategy, it was purely culinary. And, it was common to eat dog amongst the native tribes.
I have a buddy whose mom is a FOB Chinese American. They were a family of hunters and kept labradors for waterfowling, There was never a shortage of game in the house, but to hear him tell it, she was most interested in the dogs. “Black dog is best dog.”
On a somewhat related note, I will attest that mountain lion makes for fine table fare.
I’m told that horse is fairly common in European markets.
Bunch of unwashed savages up in here, eating bacon and swilling down shell fish…
I’ve never knowingly eaten dog, but leg of lab sounds a fuck load more appetizing than a tray of oysters on the 1/2 shell.
American culinary sensibilities are heavily influenced by the lobby efforts of organizations like the APHA, AQHA, ASPCA, HSotUSA, and peta among others. You know, the same people that would see you relegated to wheel guns and single shot rifles. More than an imaginary pact between humans and animals, it’s people saying “there ought to be a law agin’ it” what we do or don’t eat.
