Beijing Puts Ban on Dog Meat for Olympics

Hello, Beijing – Hold the Dog, Please

Beijing Dog Food Ban Hello, Beijing Hold the Dog, Please

While away on vacation, I heard a news report about the upcoming Beijing Games that, in addition to being responsible for causing a fair amount of head shaking, had me pondering about how the Vancouver Olympic Games in 2010 will be received. The report in question dealt with the announcement by Chinese officials that they will be putting in place a ban on the serving of dog meat, known in China as xiangrou (translation – “fragrant meat”), in all official Olympic venues during the Beijing Games next month. Apparently, like the 1988 Seoul Games, the Chinese Olympic officials want to make sure there won’t be any dog meat offerings on restaurant menus out of fear that it would upset the tourists. I don’t know about you, but I found this news rather disturbing.

Now to be clear, this isn’t about any issues regarding the farming or slaughter of dogs as a source of meat, nor is it yet another vegetarian’s attempt to demonstrate the evil behind eating animals since I’m not a vegetarian. Granted, I personally would never want to eat dog meat – I’ll stick with my Angus beef hamburgers, thank you very much. However, the idea that tourists would be upset seeing dog meat platters on a restaurant menu is absurd if not insulting to the Chinese people and their culture and traditions. When one visits another country, it is a given that you are doing such as a guest in their country. And just as how one should respect and obey the laws of that land, so too must we appreciate the cultural norms of the people, including what and how they eat. That is not to say that I’d dive into a platter of Kung Pao Dog, but I wouldn’t expect restaurants to avoid offering it to their native patrons simply because I am visiting their restaurant. And unless one is susceptible to being enticed by the notion of eating “Mystery Meat On A Stick”, I can’t see how anyone would inadvertently eat dog meat while attending the Olympic Games. For me, this is no different than buying a consumer electronics device – you read up on what it is you’re going to buy and make sure you get what you want.

So, what does this have to do with the Vancouver Winter Games? Well, it got me thinking about what Vancouver will have to remove from their menus. It’s possible tourists will be disgusted by the prospect of ingesting tree sap collected in a bucket that is deviously called “maple syrup” – Ha! Like that name will fool anyone about its origins. Or maybe they’ll have to remove all beef-based products out of fear it came from a cow infected with Mad Cow disease. After all, it only takes one bad apple, right? Or perhaps they’d better remove salmon from their menus lest anyone start a debate over whether farmed salmon really protects wild salmon stocks and the local ecosystem. Hmm, looks to me like the Vancouver officials had better start putting out brochures telling tourists to brown bag it while they visit.

Of course, my comments above are made only in jest, but the absurdity of these notions goes to highlight my point here. And that is that the reality of the 2010 Olympic Games is that Vancouver and Canadian Olympic officials won’t be putting a temporary ban on any foods or other aspects indicative of their culture and traditions and let’s be honest, no one’s expecting them to. And that’s what I find so disturbing about seeing yet another Asian country having to bend their ways to make them more accommodating or palatable to our Western tastes. After all, would Western countries accept making such concessions under the guise of making the Games more inviting to tourists who’d find our customs and culinary traditions unappealing? The simple fact is that none of us would take such a measure lying down. Instead, we’d all be up in arms about how this is “our Games” and we should be able to welcome the world to our country being who we are, and that includes what we like to eat. And if you ask me, that same courtesy should be extended to all countries instead of being the domain for a select or privileged few.