A health hazard warning may be necessary for dog-lovers who are about to read the following.
The question is simple: Is it wrong to eat dogs?
Most people will answer, "Well not really - but would you eat one?"
Personally I rather enjoy the company of dogs, and I would refuse to eat a dog even if I enter a restaurant and it's the only dish on the menu (I think I'd turn out and leave). I think I speak for a lot of people when I say dog-eating is quite a disgusting thing to do; to some it would almost be like eating your own brother or friend.
Yet, on some level it doesn't make a lot of sense when we complain about people who eat dogs. How are dogs different from other animals? Just because cows and pig and sheep aren't "man's best friend", we're allowed to eat them? Just because chickens and turkeys do not perform fancy tricks like dogs do, it is justified to eat them?
Some vegetarians may argue: Don't eat meat at all, because it's wrong altogether!
That's debatable, but it still doesn't solve the dog-specific problem we are looking at here: If we are meat-eaters and we justify eating meat on the usual reasons (e.g. men are born carnivores; survival of the fittest; I don't care about animals), does that mean it is also right to eat a dog? If it is not wrong to eat a dog, aren't we being inconsistent when we complain about people being immoral when they eat dogs?
Perhaps the biggest reason why we find eating dogs disgusting is because there is a "emotional bridge" between humans and dogs. To some extent, there is a relationship. People who keep animals like chicken or pigs as pets would tend not to eat chickens or pigs. It is an element of human emotion that we feel disgusted if we commit harm to things we love for a more trivial cause (e.g. satisfying your stomach), and human emotions constitute a part of morality. The very same reason why most (I genuinely hope I can replace "most" with "all") would say eating a human being is wrong.
Of course, this argument is based on a lot of challengeable assumptions. For example, it may be under different circumstances and for different reasons why someone may eat a dog. But meanwhile, we can perhaps settle with the conclusion that eating dog is wrong; but inconsistent for a meat-eater to hold at the same time.
