The Dog Thief Killings
February 26, 2016 10:28 PM   Subscribe

An article about Vietnam's dog meat trade, the junkies and thieves that help keep it supplied, and brutal vigilante justice. (Trigger warnings for unregulated dog slaughter, lynchings, and other acts of violence against beast and man alike.)

In 2013, a vacationing Stanford professor and nationally syndicated columnist named Joel Brinkley put forward a bizarre theory that attributed Vietnam’s geopolitical “aggression” to the nation’s cuisine. He singled out dog meat consumption as “the most gruesome thing I have ever seen.”

I called him to remind him that he’d won a Pulitzer for covering the Cambodian genocide.
posted by infinitywaltz (3 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, but this seems sort of lookylou Gonzo horror-show poverty tourism "Western white guy points out how savage and paradoxical these Others are," with quite a lot of violent description intended to shock, but without actually bringing much examination beyond this that might make it worth working through an angry discussion -- taz



 
There is no long-form journalism in Viet Nam that compares to this. To call the diet of an entire people a 'geopolitical "aggression"' is faulty. I lived there, and I had pictures of a stand with dogs strung up like meat, and the owner of the stand was nervous about it.
posted by linear_arborescent_thought at 11:25 PM on February 26, 2016


I am sitting here with my dog next to me, and I cannot judge cultures who eat dog. I had a pony when I was young, and I can't judge those who eat horse meat. I grew up eating squirrel, and any other woodland creature my uncles could shoot. Living in the US, with the horrific conditions of our food animals, it is not my place to judge other cultures. I try to buy meat as ethically as I can afford, but, to be honest, those self-congratulatory rescues of dogs meant for consumption angers me, because it's depriving people of food. Imagine if a bunch of Hindus liberated US cows.
posted by Ruki at 11:56 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


One must steal something worth $90 or more to get arrested in Vietnam; most dogs aren’t worth $20.

The article talks over and over about police not even bothering to investigate smaller crimes. Presumably the police can issue fines on petty criminals, but a supposedly corrupt force doesn't even bother to try. Does anyone have more information about this?
posted by sandswipe at 12:09 AM on February 27, 2016


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