What does the 'dog meat village' say about the proposal to stop eating dog meat?

Yen Truong village is known as an ancient craft village with many traditional crafts such as bamboo and rattan weaving, weaving, carpentry... This place is also famous for its strange custom: every 4th day of Tet, the whole village organizes an intimate New Year's meal made entirely of dog meat.

The information made the whole village excited.

Recently, the Hanoi People's Committee issued a document on strengthening the management of raising, slaughtering, trading and using dog and cat meat.

The capital's government believes that the business of slaughtering and eating dog and cat meat creates an offensive image for international tourists and foreigners working and living in Hanoi, affecting the image of a modern, civilized capital.

At the same time, the city wants people to give up the habit of eating dog meat, and is studying to ban the sale of dog meat in inner-city districts by 2021.

Mr. Minh in Yen Truong village said: “I just heard this news, I was a bit surprised because I don’t know where else, but here eating dog meat is completely normal and there is nothing wrong with it. In our village, we don’t only eat dog meat on normal days, but it’s almost a custom that every 4th day of Tet, the whole village eats dog meat.”

Mr. Minh added that in the village, people eat dog meat all year round, and on the fourth day of Tet alone, tons of dog meat are consumed in one day.

“The commune has nearly 12,000 people, Yen Truong village alone has about 7,000 people, on average each meal uses about 3 - 3.5 kg of dog meat. Thus, the whole commune consumed about 3 tons of dog meat on the 4th day of Tet alone.”

Meanwhile, according to some dog meat shop owners in the village, they have been operating normally for the past few days but have seen a slight decrease in customers after hearing the news.

“Here, every year on the fourth day of Tet, every household organizes a dog meat feast. On this occasion, my shop sells about 500 kg of dog meat, some shops sell even more. We sell it all year round, people still eat it as a daily meat dish without any complaints, only a few people abstain due to illness. Since the news of the impending ban on the sale and slaughter of dog meat, I have seen a clear decrease in the number of customers visiting the shop, but I believe that is just a proposal, because the people here consider this dish an indispensable part of their Tet menu, it cannot be omitted!”, a shop owner in the village shared.

Banis to impose, to imitate foreign countries

Mr. Long and many people in Yen Truong village said: "Eating dog meat or not is a hobby, each person has their own personality and preferences, animals are mainly to serve the needs of human life and do not affect the civilized image of the capital."

"Those who love dogs should keep them as pets. Those who eat them should buy them or raise them themselves to eat. There is no such thing as stealing dogs to sell or eat them, which is uncivilized," Mr. Long shared.

Sharing the same view, Mr. Truong shared: “Dogs are animals that serve the needs of life, even a favorite dish, there is nothing offensive. Each country, each region has its own cultural features. We cannot imitate or impose the culture of other countries on the culture of Vietnamese people. It is not right to say that this is uncivilized, it needs to be considered very carefully, we cannot just like it and ban it immediately. This dish is very normal for Vietnamese people and has existed for a long time, not only in Vietnam, countries like Korea or China... are also developed and very civilized countries, but they still eat dog meat and have dog meat festivals!”./.