What's for dinner?

In a February article from Foreign Policy, Adam Miller wrote about the use of dogs as food in China.

The article starts with and anecdote from the author's trip to China, and how he followed the sound of a wounded dog to where he saw one being beaten to death. It was being beaten because it is said to preserve the flavor. As the author found the dog, he drew a camera, and attempted to photograph the action, however one of the two men with clubs began to menacingly threaten him with the club that he was using to kill the dog.

However, there are proposed laws to stop this, and the punishments range from $725 to $7,250 in fines, and 15 days in prison. The range is based on whether the crime was done by a singular abuser, or a corporation.

Reaction to the legislation is divided by socioeconomic levels, partially because as annual income increases, so does pet ownership. An increase in violence, along with an increased reaction from pet owners spurred animal-cruelty laws. Pet ownership is relatively new, however, because it was "outlawed as a bourgeois affectation during the Cultural Revolution." The animal cruelty laws are now being used as an outlet for urban rural split.

This article relates to both animal cruelty, which can be used as an indicator of overall social welfare, socioeconomic cleavages, and civil liberties. The animal cruelty is obvious, and in most areas where animals are treated in such a manner, humans don't fare much better, as shown by one of the two murderers immediate turn of the club to the author.

The socioeconomic cleavages are purely the divide between pet owners, and those who want to eat dog. The relationship to civil liberties is freedom of the press. While the author was able to publish this, it is because he was not working for a Chinese magazine. He was, however, not allowed to take pictures, and while the government wasn't the party prohibiting pictures, they also did not do anything to allow the pictures to be taken.

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