SARS linked to Civet Cat

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by Wombat
A friend of mine was in China on business, and at the upscale restaurant, he "got" to choose his own dog from the kennel.

That's ****ing twisted.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Originally posted by Wombat
Check again. The article specifically mentions Civet being prized meat in Hong Kong.
Quite right. I also think this happens in HK, but I'm not sure. A friend of mine was in China on business, and at the upscale restaurant, he "got" to choose his own dog from the kennel.

[/QUOTE]

I lived in Hong Kong for ~12 years. Nobody ever eat that stuff. However, I don't know about this anymore because so many people from Mainland China are flowing into the city... actually... in the 90s Hong Kongers do not show much respect to people from mainland china... but now its probably different. A lot of "us" couldn't stand what they do... But after the turn over there are probably a lot of people from mainland. And the majority of people who do these stuff may just be them... (Sorry if i offend any people from mainland china) It is sad, but the population's quality is getting crappier and crappier... (BTW the cuisine in Hong Kong WAS top notch. I just can't picture how Hong Kong people eat that stuff...

Personally I am quite shocked to here this... I don't even know an individual there who eat cats/dog/other exotic animals... its all new to me! No word can describe it... but i am just shocked!

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Oh yea... one more thing... I never travelled to Hong Kong after its hand over to China

[CHHAS]

Well... picking out the dog you're going to eat is just a step up from picking out the lobster you're going to eat.

Just that lobsters aren't usually pets, and definetely lack the cuteness factor that makes us go "awwwww you can't eat that".

Not that I condone eating dogs and cats, but it's funny how the human mind works

[KvHagedorn]

I don't want to pick out my lobster, either.. I would rather not develop any sort of personal relationship with something that is about to be slaughtered for my dinner. Sorry, but maybe that's just me.

Besides, dogs and cats are intelligent, emotionally developed higher mammals. Who could say it would affect them the same way to slaughter a dog or cat as it would to catch and eat a fish? It's just not the same thing..

[Sasq]

see sig

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by Sasq
see sig

O..K..

[Brian Ellis]

There is a Chinese saying that you can eat anything that has its back to the sun.

The revulsion of Westerners to eating "pet animals" is purely a cultural thing. There is no real difference between farming pigs and feeding them on animal wastes from slaughterhouses, then eating them, than doing the same with dogs and cats. Ah! but you say that a pig has less intelligence than a poodle. Not so!

Anyway, as DukeP said, the civet is NOT a cat, nor is even distantly related to a cat. It belongs to the same family as weasels, stoats, polecats, ferrets, mongooses, pine martens and so on. And I would give a 99.99% chance that SARS has nothing to do with civets, another urban myth in the making.

And let's look at the meat we do eat. I don't know, for sure, that I've eaten dog or cat, or even rat, although I've been in both China and HK. I do know I've eaten all sorts of "disgusting" animal products, including parts of the entrails of many animals. As flesh, how about pork, beef, mutton, horse, chicken, duck, goose, turkey, grouse, pheasant, various deer, buffalo, partridge, wild boar, various fish, shellfish, crabs, crayfish, shrimps, lobster, whale, ostrich, alligator, crocodile, rattlesnake, rabbits, hare, hedgehog, wichita grubs (sago worms), that I can think of offhand. Of some of these, I have also eaten brain, liver, kidneys, lungs, spleen, testicles, gut (sausage casing), stomach (haggis casing), ears, roe (male and female), bones and even whole bodies. So really, why do we draw the line at cats and dogs, if it isn't a cultural thing?

[KvHagedorn]

If there's no logical reason to draw a line anywhere, Brian, why even draw the line at humans? Those tribes in Africa that are going after the pygmies and eating them are thought of as savages for doing so, but to them I suppose it is "normal."

[Sasq]

the sig is a japanese proverb - basic translation "10 people, 10 colours"

in other words - different strokes for different folks.
Living here I eat all sorts of things that are culturally unacceptable in my home country. And by the same token the looks on peoples faces when they find out that I love Kangaroo meat is quite amazing. It's just a cultural thing.

If you like a strong flavoured meat I recomend raw horse.

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Brian Ellis
And I would give a 99.99% chance that SARS has nothing to do with civets, another urban myth in the making.

So, what kind of payout are you giving? The WHO has further info: http://www.who.int/csr/don/2003_05_23b/en/

[az]

Because you naturally strive to keep your specias alive, it's kind of unnatural to eat fellow humans. That said, eating someone who died from a wound, etc. (i.e. not from disease, and they are still "fresh") isn't very unnatural or illogical - it just seems that way to us, but human brain is AFAIK quite healthy.

AZ

[KvHagedorn]

If we naturally strive to keep our species alive, why did the Brits and Germans embark upon a pointless fratricidal bloodbath in 1914? Sometimes I just wonder..

[az]

Originally posted by KvHagedorn
If we naturally strive to keep our species alive, why did the Brits and Germans embark upon a pointless fratricidal bloodbath in 1914? Sometimes I just wonder..

The same reason as for many other things we do: We're stupid.

AZ

[Nowhere]

Originally posted by Chrono_Wanderer

...
Personally I am quite shocked to here this... I don't even know an individual there who eat cats/dog/other exotic animals... its all new to me! No word can describe it... but i am just shocked!

Chrono, I think that many people from, lets say, India for example would be equally shocked about eating cows as you are about eating cats/dogs.
Sasq and Brian said the rest about what I think about it (basically)...