Despite the long standing tradition of consuming dog meat to deflect the heat of the summer in Southern China, the Yulin Dog Meat festival only began in 2009 where 10000 dogs are slaughtered for this barbarous festival. This brutal event has been condemned by people across the globe. This essay will discuss this issue through the various theoretical perspectives and explain how Ethnocentrism is demonstrated.
During this festival, one will witness the disturbing scenes at the Dongkou Market where dogs are burned and skinned alive. Looking through the conflict theory lens, the main clash is between the Yulin locals and animal activists. Undoubtedly, such a cruel practice is frowned upon by many but the locals are set on celebrating this festival
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In fact, one local believed that it is crueler to eat beef as cows help to plough the fields while dogs merely play the role of pets. Another pointed out that cows are considered sacred in India but people still consume beef without much criticism. Hence he feels that dog-eating in Yulin is not big a deal at all especially when it is merely a local custom not practiced across China. However, local animal activists disagree. Many are dismayed by the fact that the festival is still ongoing despite the government claiming that it will be cancelled. This resulted in a local protest to occur at the city government which achieved nothing due to the lack of appearance of government officials. Others like Yang Xiaoyun, for example, travelled all the way from Tianjin in northern China and spent more than £45,000 rescue 100 dogs from the festival. From this, I believe that the Yulin Dog Meat festival fuel conflict and hence resulting in social unrest. In this case, dog …show more content…
Ricky Gervais see dogs as ‘man’s best friend’ and to them, they cannot fathom why one would brutally butcher dogs and consider dog meat as a gourmet dish. They judge and disapprove of the harsh acts of the Yulin locals simply because of the difference in beliefs. Brought up in an American culture, he absorbs a certain set of behaviour and belief. When exposed to Yulin’s culture, Ricky has difficulty understanding their behaviour in their viewpoint and does not see dog-eating as a norm at
Chapter one, The Observers, in the Death of Woman Wang demonstrates the accuracy of the local historian; Feng K'o-ts'an, who compiled The Local History of T'an-ch'eng in 1673. The descriptive context of the Local History helps the reader to understand and literally penetrate into people's lives. The use of records of the earthquake of 1668, the White Lotus rising of 1622 and rebels rising vividly described by Feng the extent of suffering the people of T'an-ch'eng went through. Jonathan Spence stresses on how miserable the two-quarter of the seventeen-century were to the diminishing population of the county. The earthquake claimed the lives of nine thousand people, many others died in the White lotus rising, hunger, sickness and banditry. P'u Sung-ling's stories convey that after the loss of the wheat crops there were cases of cannibalism. On top of all of this came the slaughtering of the entire family lines by the bandits. The incredible records of women like Yao and Sun in the Local History present the reader the magnitude of savagery the bandits possessed. All of these factors led to the rise of suicides. The clarity of events Spence given to the reader is overwhelming.
Chang, Emily. "Inside the Cat and Dog Meat Market in China." CNN. Cable News Network, 09 Mar. 2010. Web. 04 Mar. 2014
Throughout the last century the concern of animals being treated as just a product has become a growing argument. Some believe that animals are equal to the human and should be treated with the same respect. There are many though that laugh at that thought, and continue to put the perfectly roasted turkey on the table each year. Gary Steiner is the author of the article “Animal, Vegetable, Miserable”, that was published in the New York Times right before Thanksgiving in 2009. He believes the use of animals as a benefit to human beings is inhumane and murderous. Gary Steiner’s argument for these animal’s rights is very compelling and convincing to a great extent.
One of the evident drawbacks of having animals depict human characters, is that they are figuratively and literally dehumanized. Humans are more complex than their primitive desires, impulses, and needs; and this fact could very easily be lost in translation with this choice of illustration. For example, it could be interpreted that the Germans who were drawn as cats, were behaving like the carnivorous species that they are, and chasing mice, because it is encoded in their natural instincts and a part of their primitive behaviour. This exempts the perpetrators, since it implies their lack of free will was affecting their every decision. It also implies that since the Germans are another specie, the mass murder of millions of people could never have happened by any other nationality, and that evil actions are based upon ethnicity, rather than a human’s negligence from their moral standings. However, Spiegelman was able to slightly deter from this indiscretion by giving each character dynamic personalities and pragmatic
Christopher McCandless, a young American who was found dead in summer of 1992 in wild land in Alaska, wrote in his diary about his moral struggle regarding killing a moose for survival. According to Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, Chris had to abandon most of the meat since he lacked the knowledge of how to dismantle and preserve it (166-168). Not only did he have a moral dilemma to kill a moose, but also had a deep regret that a life he had taken was wasted because of his own fault. He then started recognizing what he ate as a precious gift from the nature and called it “Holy Food” (Krakauer 168). Exploring relationships between human beings and other animals arouses many difficult questions: Which animals are humans allowed to eat and which ones are not? To which extent can humans govern other animals? For what purposes and on which principles can we kill other animals? Above all, what does it mean for humans to eat other animals? The answer may lie in its context. Since meat-eating has been included and remained in almost every food culture in the world throughout history and is more likely to increase in the future due to the mass production of meat, there is a very small chance for vegetarianism to become a mainstream food choice and it will remain that way.
Norcross, Alastair. “Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases.” Philosophical Perspectives 18, (2004): 229-245.
Although George Orwell’s Animal Farm was created in order to mimic individuals as well as occurrences that took place during the Russian Revolution period, it is still possible to gain a comprehensive understanding of the text without a past knowledge of history through the exploitation of human nature’s imperfections. Following the publishment of his novel, Orwell confirmed that his goal in writing this fable was to expose the wrongdoing of the Soviet Union as well as the treachery of the true ideas of the Revolution. Nonetheless, there have been several other examples of events such as the French Revolution that can effortlessly be contrasted against components of the allegory. However, we need not to dig no deeper than to the fundamental faults in human nature to witness the catastrophic consequences that attributes such as hierarchy, propaganda and betrayal have on today’s society.
Article #1 is a very effective piece of propaganda in that it captures the reader?s attention successfully by placing a picture of a dog in the focal point of the article. The dog plays a vital role in this piece of propaganda in that it represents a loved one, family and anything cherished. It shows what could be left behind, if a driver chose to ignore safe driving. The breed of dog is also very important. Choosing a sorrowful dogs face, further enhanced the emotions of the reader, as the article wouldn?t have the same effect if a dangerous dog was shown instead
London implements his new view of life—“human beings are one and the same despite their class, creed, nationality or social status or colour of the skin and they differ only by their deeds”5—in his writings. “[London shows] his [view] in his novel 'Call of the Wild '. The protagonist of the novel is a dog-named Buck. The dog serves the master throughout its life and when there is no space among men, it goes back to its ancestors, wolfs.”6 Buck represents humanity in the novel. Buck’s deed is serving his master, but at the end of the day, Buck returns to his fellow beings, wolfs. These socialist undertones of uniformity in The Call of the Wild are the direct cause for its censorship in Nazi Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet
Ultimately, William Saletan argues his point very well in ?Wok the Dog.? He systematically deconstructs both the argument that dog meat should be outlawed because of cruel treatment of dogs, and the argument that dog meat should be outlawed because dogs have a special position as ?man?s best friend,? and this takes away the foundation for the overarching argument that eating dog meat is unsightly and wrong, and exposes the arguments for what they truly are; an attack by westerners against a foreign practice that they find odd. Saletan effectively presents dog-eating Koreans, people whose dietary practice seems grotesque to many people, as the victims of foreign bullying, and leaves the reader no choice but to support them.
Should animals have to go through pain and suffering? Should they have to go without food and/or water? The answer is no. Animal abuse happens everyday and it happens because people are barbarous or because they don’t know how to take the best care of an animal that they have. Whatever the reason it’s still not right and will never be okay. This paper will cover a brief history of animal abuse, the statistics, the signs of animal abuse, and what can be done to stop animal abuse. Animal abuse needs to end for the animals that can’t speak for themselves.
Around the world it is acceptable to eat certain animals depending on one’s culture. “The French, who love their dogs, sometimes eat their horses. The Spanish, who loves their horses, sometimes eat their cows. The Indians, who love their cows, sometimes eat their dogs” (Foer 604). “Let Them Eat Dog” is an excerpt from Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. The excerpt explains the many benefits to eating dogs and the taboo behind it. The author also uses humor, imagery and emotional appeal to get across to the reader the logic of eating dogs. One chooses to eat meat based on what the culture deems acceptable. Foer questions why culture deems certain animals acceptable to be eaten, and illustrates why it should be acceptable to eat dogs. The
The article mainly focuses on this issue, not mentioning the aspects of animal rights. The authors argue their points well but can have counter-arguments against some
China is a country full of ancient customs and traditions. The native people are very proud of these customs and traditions. To many of us hearing the word ‘China’ we conjure up thoughts of origami, dragons, pandas, and their distinctive script’ all of which are traditional to china, but it goes a lot deeper than that.
As a human, we possess certain rights that protect us in society, however the animals we raise for food live under a much more complicated system that constantly changes. Americans have recently begun to protest animal treatment, especially in the meat industry. Many animal rights groups claim that animal farming is an inhuman practice that violates the rights of all living creatures. Farmers believe that animal right shouldn't change as any changes could cost them millions in new technology to safely care for the animals. The American farming industry poses several moral issues about animal rights which possess no easy solution, however new alternatives appear to have answers for this growing dilemma.