A Case For Eating Dogs

     I am not against the idea of consuming dogs. I believe that if other people from all over the world can eat them without an issue, then the people of the United States should be allowed to eat it without feeling alienated from our society today. In Jonathan Safran Foer's excerpt from "A Case for Eating Dogs," it states, "DESPITE THE FACT THAT IT’S perfectly legal in forty-four states, eating “man’s best friend” is as taboo as a man eating his best friend." Dog consumption being legal in the United States doesn't change the fact that some people are uncomfortable with the idea of eating a pet. Yet, I think that if it's legal then it should be more accepted in society if 88% of our country can legally eat them. I completely understand that people don't want to eat their pets, but nobody is telling them to go into their backyards and star barbecuing their dogs.
     Eating dogs gives us more options for food and is better for the environment. According to Foer's excerpt, he says, "One could argue that various “humane” groups are the worst hypocrites, spending enormous amounts of money and energy in a futile attempt to reduce the number of unwanted dogs while at the very same time propagating the irresponsible no-dog-for-dinner taboo." Another example is,  "This amounts to millions of pounds of meat now being thrown away every year. The simple disposal of these euthanized dogs is an enormous ecological and economic problem. It would be demented to yank pets from homes. But eating those strays, those runaways, those not-quite-cute-enough-to- take and not-quite-well-behaved-enough-to-keep dogs would be killing a flock of birds with one stone and eating it, too." Instead of leaving stray dogs out in the cold to starve to death, we could eat them instead. It would save us the money from putting down dogs or cleaning them up from the environment and it would be a better way to make our environment cleaner as well.
     Putting dogs onto our plates would be the same as eating a cow, chicken, pig, or sheep. We consume many of them annually and adding dogs to our menus wouldn't hurt us. Humans are sentimental creatures, so eating a dog would be like eating their best friend. Foer's excerpt states "Don’t eat animals with significant mental capacities. If by “significant mental capacities” we mean what a dog has, then good for the dog. But such a definition would also include the pig, cow, chicken, and many species of sea animals. And it would exclude severely impaired humans." Since such domestic animals have similar mental capacities, then it should be okay for people to eat dogs without getting strange looks from others. It should be as normal as consuming a hamburger or fried chicken.