810-Uncattar Fanning, Saturday, August 4,1984
Favorite pets
pests or dinner elsewhere
are
WASHINGTON - Some
American dogs and cats have it
made, dining on special blends of
food spooned from cans and
sharing their masters’ com
fortable beds.
French pets have it even better.
Dogs there sometimes accompany
their masters to the fanciest
restaurants, where they perch on
laps and sup from their own dishes.
Every society has its own
collective attitude toward animals.
One nation’s pets are another’s
pests. Creatures fondled or used
for sport in one place are part of
the workplace-or the diet--
someplace else.
“Probably more people around
the world eat dogs than protect
them,” says Dr. Man Beck of the
Center for Interaction of Animals
and Society at the University of
Pennsylvania. Even a few cats
wind up on the table, especially in
Haiti and the Extremadura region
of Spain.
Feline “Vermin”
In Israel, cat lovers are a small
minority. “Most Israelis consider
cats vermin,” says Nina Natelson
of Alexandria, Va., who found
herself trying to rescue animals
during a trip to Israel last fall.
Natelson was haunted by large
numbers of starving cats and dogs
on the country’s beaches and
streets. She discovered that
although Israelis work hard to
protect their wildlife, they give
their domestic animals low
priority.
Israel’s five, animal shelters
operate with minimal resources.
Tensions between Israel and
neighboring Arab states are a
constant distraction. “An Israeli
will say, ‘My cousin was killed in
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the war last week and my brother
was killed this week, and you’re
worried about a dog?’ ” Natelson
recounts.
She is working with concerned
Israelis to raise money for new
shelters and to promote humane
care of animals, including horses
and donkeys used by vendors.
In Latin America, pets are the
objects of both affection and
drastic eradication measures.
“No matter how humble the
household-dirt floor, shacks of tin
-they love their pets as much as we
do,” says John Walsh of Boston, an
official of the World Society for
Protection of Animals.
But rabies control can mean
laying out meat laced with
strychnine. “I went out with a
team in Peru,” Walsh says.
“Seven men killed 256 dogs in four
hours.”
Walsh, who has helped write
Colombia’s animal-protection
laws, says that nation’s horses are
more often workers than pets. Nine
thousand horses and burros ply the
choked streets of Bogota, the
capital, hauling produce and other
freight.
In some Latin American cities,
stray dogs and cats are picked up,
locked together in dirty pens, and
sometimes left unfed because of
lack of funds.
But in Reykjavik, the capital of
Iceland, no dogs roam the streets.
They’ve been prohibited there for
60 years out of fear of tapeworms.
Health reasons were also cited
late last year when authorities in
Peking, China, began to club or
drown dogs. The animals have
been officially banned from
Chinese cities since the Com-
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Two lucky children, Morgan Jones, 5, left, and her sister, Amanda, 3, play with their
pet miniature Appaloosa horses at Kennedale, Texas. One study has found that more
than eight out of ten animal-loving Americans have owned a pet at some time But
animals don’t fare so well in many other parts of the world, where they are often food.
munists took power in 1949, but
some have been kept to guard
homes.
The concept of dogs as pets is
strange to the Chinese; a
foreigner’s dog on a leash can
evoke curiosity and shrieks of
terror. But as part of a meal, a dog
can be a treat to Chinese palates.
In the Philippines, where dog
meat is considered a delicacy by
some, live dogs awaiting sale in
markets lie for hours, “painfully
trussed-front legs and back-with
a can jammed over their muz
zles,” says Jan Sherlock of the
International Fund for Animals.
Responding to protests from
animal-rights groups, the
Philippine government has banned
the sale of dog meat in
metropolitan Manila, although it
continues elsewhere.
Aslan Refugee Habits
Americans were confronted by
dogs as food during the Vietnam
War era of the 19705, when
Southeast Asian refugees began
arriving in the United States,
many of them in California.
Dr. Calvin Schwabe of the
University of California School of
Veterinary Medicine thinks
Americans should stop treating
dogs and cats like sacred cows and
start following the Asians and
others.
“Thirteen million dogs and cats
are put to sleep each year in this
country, and disposing of them is a
problem,” says Schwabe, who has
written a book that includes
recipes for dog. “It’s perfectly
edible meat.”
Hardly anyone expects such a
radical departure in the
foreseeable future. Americans are
too emotionally committed to their
pets.
Behind laboratory doors, hun
dreds of thousands of dogs and
cats, mostly from pounds, are
sacrificed yearly in scientific
experiments. But when the public
learned that the Defense Depart
ment was planning to shoot dogs,
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