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Change Your Life! |
They've been eating, not raining, cats and dogs |
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News
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July 17, 2000
BANGKOK (AP) - Thailand is set to ban the consumption and sale of dog and cat meat in response to pressure from animal welfare groups and Western governments, a newspaper reported Sunday. Goverment agencies are drafting a bill which would legally recognize dogs and cats as household pets and protect them from inhumane treatment, The Sunday Nation reported. Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Don Pramudwinai was quoted as saying cruelty to dogs and cats is not common in Thailand but became an issue when some Western countries threatened to ban Thai leather products. In Sakhon Nakhon province in Thailand's poor northeast, dogs are slaughtered by villagers who eat the meat and sell the skins to companies that make golf gloves and other clothing accessories for export. Thai industrial associations related to leather production deny that registered factories use dog and cat skins, saying it's the work of illegal slaughterers in remote villages. Unlike in some other Asian cultures, such as Korea where dog meat is regarded as a delicacy, it is less prized in Thailand for its taste than its cheapness. It costs about half as much as pork. Authorities in Sakhon Nakhon have been trying to shake off its image as the place to eat man's best friend by encouraging older people in the province to switch to other meat, a government public relations department statement this week said.
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