If this doesn't move you, your heart must be made of stone...

[Catherine]

Quote:When I occasionally raise the issue of dog eating on other forums, some people trot out the old argument, "Ah, but we eat cows, sheep, etc. and they are often killed cruelly...". So now I always explain the issue carefully, pointing out that cruel killing of any animals are wrong. No matter what type of animal, cruel killing cannot be justified, even by meat eaters.

Having said all that, I agree with Catherine that there is something special about dogs. They have been close companions of humans since caveman times. Their sense of loyalty is exceptional. They teach mankind so much - when it is listening, that is....

There are two important points here:

1) It is not alright to kill animals cruelly. There seems to be an extreme brutality towards dogs during these festivals. Such behavior can never considered right.

(Many of us are not comfortable with eating meat because we don't want to be part of  killing any animal.)

2)Dogs do have a special bond with us. We live with them as family members and they serve us in many ways. This bond does go back to prehistoric days. The dog eating festivals are not that old and they are a betrayal of the traditional human/canine bond.
I am not sure we would be as advanced as we are if dogs had not befriended us. 

In this particular case it was a child's pet that was killed. That makes the action particularly heinous. There is no way to justify or condone killing a child's pet for food.