Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1897-11-25
THE DOG AS FOOD.
Eaten by Many Races since Time Inn


Eaten by Many Races since Time Inn
memorial.
The more we know of men, the more
we like dogs" writes misanthropically
that great friend of animals, NJ. Tous-
seueI. Perhaps it is because the in
habitants of the Celestial empire do
not know men sufficiently that they
still regard the dog as an edible ami
mai, and as one OF the most savory OF
morsels. But it is to be hoped that in
the progress of civilization a day will
come when these brave animals-'can-
didates for humanity" according to
Michelet's picturesque expression
will no longer figure on the menus OF
state dinners at the court of Peking.
Darwin relates somewhere that when
the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego are
pressed by famine they kill and eat
their old women rather than their dogs,
and that in Australia fathers will sac
rifice their children in order that the
mothers may be able to nourish this
useful servant of man. The Chinese,
however, tend and fatten their dogs
carefully-to eat. They also consider
the cat choice dish. Able LIE Noir, in
Travels in the Far East" relates that
in the markets of many cities are TO
be seen dogs and cats hanging side
by side by the head or tail, and that
on most farms these animals are kept
in little coops like hencoops. They
remain thus from two to three weeks,
condemned to almost complete immo-
bility, and are fed on nothing but n
mixture of rice and farina. We do not
know the edible dog or the edible cat
in France, but probably since the siege
they have been but little served-open-
" at least-on the tables of Paris res
taurants. At Peking and throughout
| China, however, there is no dainty re-
past without its hllet or leg of dog;
the cat is rather dish of the poorer
| classes.
These same customs that are so re-
| pulsive to US as to seem like kind of
semi-cannibalism existed, nevertheless,
among the people of classic antiquity.
| History tells us that in early times
the dog was always regarded as an
| edible animal. The inhabitants of
certain homes of Egypt piously en-
balmed their dead dogs, but others con-
sidered that it was more in conformity
| to the doctrines of wise economy to
| kill and eat them, Plutarch tells us
! that the dwellers in Cynopolis, where
/ dogs were honored as divine, made war
on the Oxyrinchis, who had committed
the sacrilege of eating dogs. In his
book on Diet, Hippocrates, speaking
| of common articles of food, is of the
| opinion that the flesh of the dog gives
| heat and strength, but is difficult of
digestion. "Our fathers" says PGny.
regarded small dogs as so pure food
| that they used them for expiatory VIC
| tins. Even to-day young dogs flesh Is
served at feasts held in honor of the
| gods" And further on: This meat
was used in the installation feasts of
the pontiffs." According to Apicius,
| who has left us a curious treatise ION
| Cookery" the Romans ate also adult
dogs.
The savages of North America, for
| lack of provisions, often sacrifice their
| companions of the chase. We are told
that before the introduction of cattle
| the Spaniards in Mexico used the ma
i tive dogs so freely as food that the spe-
cies has now completely disappeared.
According to Capt. Cook, the natives OF
| New Zealand ate their dogs and clothed
/ themselves in the skins. Forster adds:
"They love the flesh passionately, and
| prefer ii to that of the pig" The
Greenlanders and the Kamchatkans
also sometimes eat their dogs, but only
when reduced to this cruel extremity
by famine. In Africa dogs form the
food of certain negro tribes; in the
Ashantee country the flesh is eaten
both fresh and dried. And it appears
that In the lower Congo region, among
the Batekes, there is custom that must
make every friend of dumb beasts rage
with ndignation-'before killing dog
for food it Is maltreated and tortured,
to make the flesh more tender.-La Ma
1 fnre