But while some seek safety in soy and lentils, more carnivorous savages are licking their chops over other meats. The price of horses in America has jumped dramatically as European buyers snap up nags otherwise destined for the glue factory. The Swiss have been outraged by recent reports that Communist China now has mass breeding farms for St. Bernards, the huge, lovable dogs famed for rescuing with brandy those stranded in deep alpine snows. Chinese people who own dogs would never eat their own dogs. But these dogs we re eating were bred specially for their meat they re like chickens, sheep and cows, so people don t feel bad about eating them.
Food preferences are major definers of culture.
In Africa it is common to feast on insects. Most Americans cringe at the notion, yet enjoy dining on undersea worms called shrimp and on distant relatives of spiders called crabs. Americans gorge with gusto on hamburgers. But to Hindus in India, who regard cows as the second mother of humankind and as sacred, feasting on beef is an abomination. Australian bioethicist Dr. Peter Singer came to world fame by authoring the 1975 book Animal Liberation , the bible of the animal rights movement.