Every single time American’s very negative reaction to eating dogs and cats comes up, someone has to show up to explain that it’s a cultural thing, as if the vast majority of reasonably-sentient people were not already aware of this.
“Eating dogs and cats is gross and cruel” is an incredibly deep seated cultural sentiment in the US, you are *not* going to be able to logic people out of it, and it’s incredibly tiresome when commentators smugly note how illogical it is that most Americans would rather eat a pig than a puppy.
Prohibitions are cultural. That’s how it works. To anyone who pretends that somehow makes them unreal or important, I’d like to ask you some serious questions about pedophilia, incest, and cannibalism.
Word.
Granted, I had this conversation with my mom a few years ago, which ended with her saying "When I die, if it makes you feel better to eat my liver, you should do that."
THANKS MOM.
I react negatively to the idea of eating horse meat...and being tricked into eating it as a teenager by people in Belgium, where it's normal, did not help.
But I will stand up for people's right to eat horse meat (although ideally from horses raised for meat).
What I love to say to people who...
...want to stop people from other cultures eating horse, dog, cat...is that there is a major world religion that disallows the consumption of beef. OUR normal eating habits are taboo to others, so we have no right to complain when others break our taboos. None.
Serious question & I don't disagree w/ your comments: I'm wondering why horses raised for eating are somehow less worthy than those who aren't? (I've eaten horse meat & it was fine, although I won't eat it again.) Would ppl be ok with cats and dogs raised for meat?
No, Us people are also extremely strongly against cats and dogs raised for meat. Americans are also generally very against puppy mills that raise dogs en masse in bad conditions for pets (although they’re allowed to stay legal).
Because dogs and cats are considered companion animals - even those born in the wild who have never encountered a human. Horses are considered utilitarian, and the shift from "work animal" to "food animal" isn't a huge one.
Eating a dog feels closer to eating a human.
Yeah, there's a difference between horses and goats (common livestock but not normally eaten for meat, so neither exotic nor ordinary and thus weird) and dogs and housecats (companion animals and thus a subject of deeper revulsion). Guinea pig/qui stands at an interesting median.
There is, although I will note that the taboo against eating goats is a peculiarly white American thing, not shared with Europeans, Black Americans or, as far as I know, anyone else. (Canadians?)
It's a very strange one.
The taboo against horse meat, on the other hand, came to America (and I have to assume Australia, although it occurs to me I've never asked) from England. It stems from the suppression of certain pagan practices involving horse sacrifices...it's a genuine *taboo*.
The taboo isn't that strong, either! I suspect it comes from the same source as the mild taboo white Americans from some parts of the country have towards pig offal like chitterlings, pickled trotters, and so on- racial, class, and regionalist connotations.
I grew up eating goat (Haitian American). I dont eat it anymore but not out of revulsion I just never liked it. It's a very darkly flavored meat. It's very common to eat in parts of Africa, the carribean. Way more than lamb.
I’m Canadian and eat goat, but I grew up in Kenya where that’s way more common. You can certainly get it here but you’re more likely to find it in stores and restaurants that serve Caribbean or African communities; your average white-bread Loblaws might not have it.
I don't agree that there is a taboo against it as much as it has not been part of our common diet and we just don't like it. I don't know that there is a cultural aversion to it that's deeper than "I don't wanna".
Lots of goats raised in Oklahoma for meat. Back in the day if you went to my aunt's house and she served hamburger you knew it was goat meat. Been to lots of BBQs where goat was on the menu.
I (white, currently living in the US Midwest) bought a 15 pound box of goat cubes at Costco and have been working my way through them in various pressure cooker stews.
Granted I grew up in a family with hunters, and I like to think I'm adventurous eater/cook, so maybe I missed out on the taboo?
Exception: In some areas of Texas and the Rockies, they have cook outs follow an antelope hunt. What they put on the grill? Goat.
Looks and tastes similar but is far more plentiful
Is it a regional thing? I grew up in the Midwest eating mostly chicken, because of money. But when I got older and less broke, trying and liking goat was no big thing. I don't seek it out or pretend I know how to cook it, but I'll order it if it's available.
Never really saw a taboo about goat meat here (Austria) but it does have a lasting reputation for being low-quality meat ("Armeleuteessen", literally "poor people's food") which makes it rare in modern cooking.
Suburban Canadian here! In my circles, older white people mostly seem to think of goats as cartoonish animals that eat tin cans and other garbage. Maybe that gives an impression that they're less preferable food animals? Bear meat has a similarly divisive nature, since bears are unpicky omnivores.
Cuy would not exist in domestication if they hadn’t been domesticated for meat, so the weird thing is keeping a longstanding food source as pets. They were never pets until gringos decided they were. They’ve been an important food here for a very long time.
