There's currently an ongoing conflict of interest against consumption of dog meat in my country.
Before you go full Crusades, let me remind you it's only the minority who wants to eat them.
(PS: and I'm on the “protecc dogge” faction)
There's this small, small region where many dog lovers hate; mainly because the consumption of dog meat is quite high there albeit there's barely any dog farms near the area… so you can guess where they get those meat, right?
Yeah. Illegal hunting of wild dogs.
The problem arose when, despite the controversy and public demands to stop such practice, the consumption rate in that particular region is barely decreasing (if not at all). Many dog lovers feel offended by their culture of eating dog meat, while some of the local people simply don't give a damn. Dog lovers cursed them as apathetic bastard, while they (I think?) silently cursed them back as hypocrite bunches.
This stupid meaningless banter goes on and on and oooon… with no solution for years.
The local government hesitates to put a ban, worrying the backlash that might happens.
The dog faction is enraged because they think the government is not serious with tackling this issue.
On another side, my country has close to none working animal shelter for those wild dogs, and it's becoming a real issue because not few of them are inflicted with Rabies… so much that in some region there are purges happening behind the scene.
So basically, the dog meat seller (shall be called «Seller» from this point) has a ‘justified’ reason of hunting the wild dogs.
On one point they help with controlling the wild dogs population, decreasing the job public government needs to do, which further decrease the need of vaccination budget for them.
On another point, they are known to be quite a professional butcher, and all the dishes made are almost overcooked so the contamination probability is toned down to miniscule level.
But the main point is… there's always demand for it. As the market dictates, when there's demand by «Buyer», there will be someone on the market who tries to supply it. So this chain of supply and demand causes the dog meat to be a commodity in the market.
The Seller and Buyer, who are closely linked with the dog meat culture, refuse to stop their practice, while the dog faction keep telling them to stop without trying to tackle the main problem; the culture itself.
Culture is born from practices that got repeated over and over again for years until it becomes normalcy in their life.
Empathy is something born from human's mind when they're faced with set of moral values and accept them as their way of life, giving them a sense of ‘enlightment’ and elevates their compassion level.
On paper, it sounds doable to counter cultural practices by nurturing the empathy level in that group. But whether they're willing or not is based on personal judgement… and pressuring them with demands might have negative impact on it.
That's why they called the dog faction as hypocrite; only demanding without giving any solution or even tried to convince them.
I, personally, am a dog lover. I live with dog for almost the entirety of my life. I treasure dog as my partner.
Yet even so, my empathy is limited in range. To be honest, I don't really care whether they eat dog meat or not; as long as it doesn't involves my dog.
It might sounds cruel, but aren't we all like that? We all have certain “range of effectiveness” for our empathy, that's why we are able to maintain our sanity.
Imagine if you get empathetic for everything. That would be truly hell on earth, and that's why our mind provides a “wall” to separate them. In my case, it's quite short-ranged, so that's why I might pity a cricket in front of me, while not feeling anything when a child soldier got shot on their head on TV.
I think the problem with this conflict lies in the inability to expand your emphatic range to counter that culture. At the same time, a deeply-rooted culture cannot be easily countered with logical explanation, more or less with something vague like empathy.
If you want to pull the root, then what you need to do first is to convice them, not to judge them or even labelling them with negative stigma.You're trying to increase your ally, not to add more enemies.
It's no wonder animal support group are often called hypocrites; they really are indeed.
As long as both side refuse to relent their attack, I think there will be no end to this conflict.
Well, can't blame those locals. Dog stew is tasty as f*ck. Even my dog loved it.
Culture and Empathy — «is woof tasty?»
Author
Sherrynity
I see no God up there… other than the chaotic void, Male
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